Interesting problem comparing strings with integer values...

[Chris Spencer]

	Due to certain design constraints, I must be able to store both integers
and floating point numbers as strings.  These strings must be able to be
compared correctly, so things like: "999"<"3432" are not possible.
	One option we thought of was padding the strings with zeros, so things
like: "00000999"<"00003432" would work.  This seems a bit hack-y to me.  I was
wondering if anyone has a more elegant solution to the problem?

Chris.