diff --git a/lib/moodlelib.php b/lib/moodlelib.php
index c91d066b0a8..b1860325b5f 100644
--- a/lib/moodlelib.php
+++ b/lib/moodlelib.php
@@ -115,6 +115,11 @@ define('PARAM_INT',      0x0002);
  */
 define('PARAM_INTEGER',  0x0002);
 
+/**
+ * PARAM_NUMBER - a real/floating point number. 
+ */
+define('PARAM_NUMBER',  0x000a);
+
 /**
  * PARAM_ALPHA - contains only english letters.
  */
@@ -363,6 +368,9 @@ function clean_param($param, $type) {
         case PARAM_INT:
             return (int)$param;  // Convert to integer
 
+        case PARAM_NUMBER:
+            return (float)$param;  // Convert to integer
+
         case PARAM_ALPHA:        // Remove everything not a-z
             return eregi_replace('[^a-zA-Z]', '', $param);