Index: trunk/pstamp/scripts/pstamp_request_file
===================================================================
--- trunk/pstamp/scripts/pstamp_request_file	(revision 26289)
+++ trunk/pstamp/scripts/pstamp_request_file	(revision 27751)
@@ -187,5 +187,11 @@
         for (my $i = 0; $i < scalar @colNames; $i++) {
             my $writeType = $colWriteType[$i];
-            $outFits->write_col( $writeType, $i + 1, 1, 1, $numRows, $colData->[$i], $status );
+            my $data = $colData->[$i];
+            if ($writeType == TULONG) {
+                die "invalid integer data found in column $i\n" unless validIntegers($data);
+            } elsif ($writeType == TDOUBLE) {
+                die "invalid numeric data found in column $i\n" unless validNumbers($data);
+            }
+            $outFits->write_col( $writeType, $i + 1, 1, 1, $numRows, $data, $status );
             check_fitsio( $status );
         }
@@ -312,4 +318,42 @@
 }
 
+sub checkValid {
+    my $aref = shift;
+    my $float = shift;
+
+    return 0 if !defined $aref;
+
+    my $valid = 0;
+    my $row = 0;
+    foreach my $val (@$aref) {
+        $row++;
+        if ($float) {
+            if (!($val =~  /^([+-]?)(?=\d|\.\d)\d*(\.\d*)?([Ee]([+-]?\d+))?$/)) {
+                $valid = 0;
+                print STDERR "Error on row $row: '$val' is not a valid number\n";
+                last;
+            }
+        } else {
+            if ($val =~ /\D/) {
+                $valid = 0;
+                print STDERR "Error on row $row: '$val' is not a valid integer\n";
+                last;
+            }
+        }
+        $valid = 1;
+    }
+
+    return $valid;
+}
+sub validIntegers {
+    return checkValid(@_, 0);
+}
+
+sub validNumbers
+{
+    return checkValid(@_, 1);
+}
+
+
 sub printhelp
 {