ng.  Now it has expanded to a number of interesting uses.
      Many unusual situations are provided for, including
      <ul> 
        <li>
          string '31.2' <=> numeric value 31.2;
        </li>
        <li>
          uppercase <=> lowercase;
        </li>
        <li>
          removal of control characters or blanks;
        </li>
        <li>
          sorting, merging, searching.
        </li>
      </ul>
    </p>

    <p>
      Many of the routine names begin with the name of the data type they