Validate question concerning float

[Anon]

i have a script that uses a form with a field for the user to enter a money amount. (it is also tied to database so the amount will be saved, the datatype is float(4,2) )

i would like to validate that the user is actually entering this correctly before it is dumped into the database.

The user should enter for example:
10.99
12.01
999.99
125.00

and not accept it if they enter things like
$10.99
1.23.2
abcd
abc.de

anyone point me in the right direction on how to do this? thanks for any help

and so forth.....

[Anon]

You can try type casting the values beofre saving: $amt1 = (float)$amt1;