Converting exponential numbers to strings.

[Steve]

Hi,
   I'm new to python and I'm trying to write a routine to determine
whether or not an object is numeric like so:

def isnumeric(s,allow_dec=0,allow_neg=0):

    decimal_found = 0
    negative_found = 0

    if s == "":
        return 0

    for x in str(s):
        if x not in string.digits:
            if x == "." and allow_dec:
                if decimal_found:
                    return 0
                else:
                    decimal_found = 1

            elif x == "-" and allow_neg:
                if negative_found:
                    return 0
                else:
                    negative_found = 1
            else:
                return 0

    return 1


Everything works just great, until I pass it a value like: 0.000085
When that happens str(.000085) returns 8.5e-05

I'm open to all suggestions at this point.  I've also tried replacing
the "for" statement above with:   for x in "%20.20f" % s:

But that no longer returns the decimal portion of the value.

Please CC me in your replies.

Thanks in advance,
Steve