Extract numeric values (with decimals) from string variables

[Yuntian Lu]

I have string variables that look like this and I want to extract only the numeric portions including the decimals. Thank you in advance for your help.
string_var
86.2
69.6 s
:
70.09999999999999
75.8
77.59999999999999
72.7
75.5
75.5
65.59999999999999
83.2
71.59999999999999
74.3 s
74.8
59.9 e
74.3
63
43.5 e
66.8

[Rich Goldstein]

you can use -destring- with the "ignore()" option; use

ta string_var if real(string_var)==.

to find what to include in the ignore option; see

h destring