--- /dev/null
+## Copyright (C) 1996-2012 Kurt Hornik
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+## your option) any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING. If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {@var{x} =} str2num (@var{s})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {[@var{x}, @var{state}] =} str2num (@var{s})
+## Convert the string (or character array) @var{s} to a number (or an
+## array). Examples:
+##
+## @example
+## @group
+## str2num ("3.141596")
+## @result{} 3.141596
+##
+## str2num (["1, 2, 3"; "4, 5, 6"])
+## @result{} 1 2 3
+## 4 5 6
+## @end group
+## @end example
+##
+## The optional second output, @var{state}, is logically true when the
+## conversion is successful. If the conversion fails the numeric output,
+## @var{x}, is empty and @var{state} is false.
+##
+## @strong{Caution:} As @code{str2num} uses the @code{eval} function
+## to do the conversion, @code{str2num} will execute any code contained
+## in the string @var{s}. Use @code{str2double} for a safer and faster
+## conversion.
+##
+## For cell array of strings use @code{str2double}.
+## @seealso{str2double, eval}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: jwe
+
+function [m, state] = str2num (s)
+
+ if (nargin != 1)
+ print_usage ();
+ elseif (! ischar (s))
+ error ("str2num: S must be a string or string array");
+ endif
+
+ s(:, end+1) = ";";
+ s = sprintf ("m = [%s];", reshape (s', 1, numel (s)));
+ state = true;
+ eval (s, "m = []; state = false;");
+ if (ischar (m))
+ m = [];
+ state = false;
+ endif
+
+endfunction
+
+
+%!assert(str2num ("-1.3e2"), -130);
+%!assert(str2num ("[1, 2; 3, 4]"), [1, 2; 3, 4]);
+
+%!test
+%! [x, state] = str2num ("pi");
+%! assert (state);
+%! [x, state] = str2num ("Hello World");
+%! assert (! state);
+
+%% Test input validation
+%!error str2num ()
+%!error str2num ("string", 1)
+%!error <S must be a string> str2num ({"string"})
+