Thanks Rohit:

Figured it out on my own, but it wasn't obvious

In[216]:= numberOfButtons = 
ToExpression@StringCases[  data[[ gln + 3]], DigitCharacter]

Out[216]= {2}

The following should have worked but didn't

In[217]:= 
numberOfButtons[[1]] = 
 ToExpression@StringCases[  data[[ gln + 3]], DigitCharacter]

Out[217]= {2}

But this did

In[222]:= numberOfButtons[[1]]

Out[222]= 2

In[223]:= Head[numberOfButtons[[1]] ]

Out[223]= Integer

That seems pretty convoluted.

Once again, thanks for your help.

Rohit:

You are absolutely right about the generality. It wasn't needed because of the metadata embedded in what I'm trying to do. I didn't know about extracting strings when I initially wrote the question. Consider the first line in the file named "Cards 4550 to 4555 "

Total Number of Cards = 6

It is the first of 101 strings in the file

By the way I set up the metadata I know that the 6th word in the string will be a series of decimal digits telling me the number of cards, so the generality that I initially asked for wasn't needed

So using

 blix = StringExtract ["Total Number of Cards = 6 "]

Head[blix] gives String

blix = ToExpression [blix]

also gives blix

but Head[blix] now gives Integer

As always thanks for your help and insights.

LR

Rohit:

You are right of course and here is the way it should look

In[250]:= data[[ 1]]
Out[250]= "Total Number of Cards =  6 "

(* BEGIN PROLOGUE to do a bunch of cards
  The variable data has been set up above. data is a list of 101strings *)

numCards = StringExtract [ data[[1]], 6 ]
"6"

In[295]:= Head[numCards]
Out[295]= String

In[296]:= numCards = ToExpression [numCards ]
Out[296]= 6

In[297]:= Head [ numCards ]
Out[297]= Integer

Because of the way the metaData is set up I know where the integers are to be found in each metaData string. Otherwise ToExpression wouldn't work.

Thanks again.

LR

No. Currently the cards reside in a variety of files each containing a variable number of cards. Most have 1,000, but I have made several containing 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 cards for purposes of testing the Mathematica programs I'm in the process of developing.

The first string in each file has exactly 6 words, no more no less, the last of which is a bunch of digits, so

StringExtract [ data [[1]], 6 ] does exactly what I want.