Imports System
Public Class Program
Public Shared Function PositiveOrNegative(ByVal s As String) As String
Try
Dim n As Double = Double.Parse(s)
If n < 0 Then
Return "negative"
Else
Return "positive"
End If
Catch ex As Exception
Return "not a number"
End Try
End Function
Public Shared Sub Main(ByVal args As String())
Dim s As String = "84593"
Console.WriteLine(PositiveOrNegative(s))
s = "-15"
Console.WriteLine(PositiveOrNegative(s))
s = "18W"
Console.WriteLine(PositiveOrNegative(s))
End Sub
End Class
' run:
'
' positive
' negative
' not a number
'