\section{STR2NUM Convert a String to a Number}

\subsection{Usage}

Converts a string to a number.  The general syntax for its use
is
\begin{verbatim}
  x = str2num(string)
\end{verbatim}
Here \verb|string| is the data string, which contains the data to 
be converted into a number.  The output is in double precision,
and must be typecasted to the appropriate type based on what
you need.
