I've got an input file that is char count delimited.
so var1 is the first 10 characters of a line and var2 is the second 10 characters of the same line, and so on.

The problem is that each set of 10 chars could be just an empty string.

right now, I have the follwoing:
if (strEmpty(input))
var1 = -99999
else
var1 = strToVal(input)

rather than setting it to some number, is there something like:
if (strEmpty(input))
var1 = LONG.NaN // or DOUBLE.NaN, depending on the type of var1
else
var1 = strToVal(input)

If something like this is possible, then the next part is can I use it as a comparison? something like the following.

If (var1==LONG.NaN)
do nothing
else
do something