[R] numbers as part of long character

[Hua Li]

Hi,

I'm looking for some way to pick up the numbers which are contained and buried in a long character. 

For example,

outtree.new="(((B:1204.25,E:1204.25):7581.11,F:8785.36):8353.85,C:17139.21);"

num.char = unlist(strsplit(unlist(strsplit(unlist(strsplit(unlist(strsplit(unlist(strsplit(outtree.new,")",fixed=TRUE)),"(",fixed=TRUE)),":",fixed=TRUE)),",",fixed=TRUE)),";",fixed=TRUE))

num.vec=as.numeric(num.char[1:(length(num.char)-1)])

num.char
#  "B"        "1204.25"  "E"        "1204.25"  "7581.11"  "F"        "8785.36"  "8353.85"  "C"        "17139.21" "" 

num.vec
# NA  1204.25       NA  1204.25  7581.11       NA  8785.36  8353.85       NA 17139.21

would help me get the numbers such as 1204.25, 7581.11, etc, but with a warning message which reads:
"Warning message:
NAs introduced by coercion "

Is there a way to get around this? Thanks!

Hua