This built-in function returns the numeric value of a string of characters. The argument string is a sequence of characters that can be interpreted as a numeric value. The Val function stops reading the string at the first non-numeric character. Val also strips blanks, tabs, and line feeds from the argument string. Symbols and characters such as dollar signs, commas, radix prefixes, octals, or hexadecimals are not recognized by Val as numeric.

# The following expression returns a numeric value for the data in the balance variable