Sorry, I'm quite new to ruby. But I encounterd the following problem. If I have a string "bla" and apply to_i to it I get 0. This seems to be quite strange because it is what it is a string so shouldn't an exeception be rissen or s.th simular. And how do you check if a string is a number then? I used: def is_integer?(potential_int) result = potential_int =~ /\D/ if !result return TRUE else return FALSE end end But I don't think this might be the right way. Could s.o give me a hand? Regards Friedrich