      FUNCTION VALX(STR)

C$$$  SUBPROGRAM DOCUMENTATION BLOCK
C
C SUBPROGRAM:    VALX
C   PRGMMR: WOOLLEN          ORG: NP20       DATE: 1994-01-06
C
C ABSTRACT: THIS FUNCTION DECODES A REAL NUMBER FROM A CHARACTER
C   STRING.  IF THE DECODE FAILS, THEN THE VALUE BMISS IS
C   RETURNED.  NOTE THAT, UNLIKE FOR SUBROUTINE STRNUM, THE INPUT
C   STRING MAY CONTAIN A LEADING SIGN CHARACTER (E.G. '+', '-').
C
C PROGRAM HISTORY LOG:
C 1994-01-06  J. WOOLLEN -- ORIGINAL AUTHOR
C 1998-07-08  J. WOOLLEN -- REPLACED CALL TO CRAY LIBRARY ROUTINE
C                           "ABORT" WITH CALL TO NEW INTERNAL BUFRLIB
C                           ROUTINE "BORT"
C 1999-11-18  J. WOOLLEN -- RENAMED THIS FUNCTION FROM "VAL$" TO "VALX"
C                           TO REMOVE THE POSSIBILITY OF THE "$" SYMBOL
C                           CAUSING PROBLEMS ON OTHER PLATFORMS
C 2003-11-04  J. ATOR    -- ADDED DOCUMENTATION
C 2003-11-04  S. BENDER  -- ADDED REMARKS/BUFRLIB ROUTINE
C                           INTERDEPENDENCIES
C 2003-11-04  D. KEYSER  -- UNIFIED/PORTABLE FOR WRF; ADDED HISTORY
C                           DOCUMENTATION; OUTPUTS MORE COMPLETE
C                           DIAGNOSTIC INFO WHEN ROUTINE TERMINATES
C                           ABNORMALLY; CHANGED CALL FROM BORT TO BORT2
C 2009-04-21  J. ATOR    -- USE ERRWRT
C
C USAGE:    VALX (STR)
C   INPUT ARGUMENT LIST:
C     STR      - CHARACTER*(*): STRING CONTAINING ENCODED REAL VALUE
C
C   OUTPUT ARGUMENT LIST:
C     VALX     - REAL: DECODED VALUE
C
C REMARKS:
C    THIS ROUTINE CALLS:        BORT2    ERRWRT   RJUST
C    THIS ROUTINE IS CALLED BY: GETTBH   NEMTBB   UPFTBV
C                               Normally not called by any application
C                               programs but it could be.
C
C ATTRIBUTES:
C   LANGUAGE: FORTRAN 77
C   MACHINE:  PORTABLE TO ALL PLATFORMS
C
C$$$

      INCLUDE 'bufrlib.prm'

      CHARACTER*(*) STR
      CHARACTER*128 BORT_STR1,BORT_STR2
      CHARACTER*99  BSTR
      CHARACTER*8   FMT

      COMMON /QUIET / IPRT

C----------------------------------------------------------------------
C----------------------------------------------------------------------

      LENS = LEN(STR)
      IF(LENS.GT.99) GOTO 900
      BSTR(1:LENS) = STR
      RJ = RJUST(BSTR(1:LENS))
      WRITE(FMT,'(''(F'',I2,''.0)'')') LENS
      VALX = BMISS
      READ(BSTR,FMT,ERR=800) VAL
      VALX = VAL
      GOTO 100
800   IF(IPRT.GE.0) THEN
      CALL ERRWRT('+++++++++++++++++++++WARNING+++++++++++++++++++++++')
      CALL ERRWRT('BUFRLIB: VALX - ERROR READING STRING:')
      CALL ERRWRT(BSTR(1:LENS))
      CALL ERRWRT('RETURN WITH VALX = MISSING')
      CALL ERRWRT('+++++++++++++++++++++WARNING+++++++++++++++++++++++')
      CALL ERRWRT(' ')
      ENDIF

C  EXITS
C  -----

100   RETURN
900   WRITE(BORT_STR1,'("STRING IS: ",A)') STR
      WRITE(BORT_STR2,'("BUFRLIB: VALX - STRING LENGTH EXCEEDS LIMIT '//
     . ' OF 99 CHARACTERS")')
      CALL BORT2(BORT_STR1,BORT_STR2)
      END