parsing engineering symbols

[Suresh Jeevanandam]

Hi,
        I want to convert a string to float value. The string contains 
engineering symbols.
        For example,
        
        s = '12k'

        I want some function which would return 12000
                function(s)
                => 12000.0
        I searched the web, but could not find any function.

regards,
Suresh
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