tryCatch question

Hi there,

I have a nested call of lapply in which I do a tryCatch statement like this

lapply(1:length(p_names), function(w_idx) {
       r <- as.numeric(pos_r[[w_idx]][1])
       c <- as.numeric(pos_c[[w_idx]][1])
       pos <- c(r,c)
       lapply(1:length(p_names[[w_idx]]), function(p_idx, pos) {
               parameter <- p_names[[w_idx]][[p_idx]]
               value <- p_vals[[w_idx]][[p_idx]]

               tryCatch({ as.numeric(value) }, warning = function(ex) {
value})
               oad$resultValues[[parameter]][pos[1],pos[2]] <<- value
               NULL
       }, pos)
})

(sorry, that I don't have a simple test code here...)
the tryCatch shall convert a value in a number if this makes sense (so "3.3"
should be converted, but not "hello"; all values are strings)

if I simply execute something like this:

value <- "3.3"
tryCatch({ as.numeric(value) }, warning = function(ex) { value})

it works pretty nice. but within the lapply construct I always end up with
strings.
Does anybody have an idea why? (I can try to create a simple testcode for
this but maybe there is already someone who knows what's wrong?

x <- c("3.3", "2.1");
tryCatch({ y <- as.numeric(x) }, warning = function(ex) { str(ex); })
y;

x <- c("3.3", "a");
tryCatch({ z <- as.numeric(x) }, warning = function(ex) { str(ex); })

z;

value <- "3.3";
value2 <- as.double(value);
# If not a valid number, keep original value
if (is.na(value2)) value2 <- value;
value2

value <- "hello";
value2 <- as.double(value);

if (is.na(value2)) value2 <- value;
value2

Ciao,
Antje