Repeated Pattern

Question

Can someone suggest how a pattern would be constructed to extract the first list of contiguous numbers from this data?

sample = {52.2624, 54.4003, 60.7418, 61.3801, 62.6397, 61.7992,
   63.2282, "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", 62.3921, 61.897,
   60.299, 59.053, 61.3778, 64.3724, 63.4251, 78.1912, 79.7451,
   80.4741, "", 81.324, 79.9114, 93.7509};

I have tried variations like sample //. {useable : _?NumberQ .., ___} -> {useable} to no avail.

useable = TakeWhile[sample, NumberQ] works well, but I would like to know how to do it using pattern matching.

Answer 1

Trying to preserve your logic:

 sample /. {useable : Longest[_?NumberQ ..], ___} -> {useable}

If you want the longest numeric sequence:

sample /. {___, useable : Longest[_?NumberQ ..], ___} -> {useable}

Edit

To get all the numeric sequences:

Cases[SplitBy[sample, NumberQ], {_?NumberQ ..}]

or

Last@Reap[sample //. {x___, useable : Longest[_?NumberQ ..], y___} :> 
                                              (Sow@{useable}; {x}~Join~{y})]

Answer 2

One way would be

sample /. {Longest[useable___?NumberQ], ___} :> {useable}

which returns {52.2624, 54.4003, 60.7418, 61.3801, 62.6397, 61.7992, 63.2282} from your sample.