First, thanks for all your help! You really make a difference, and I GREATLY appreciate it.
So I have a Varchar column and it holds a 16 digit number, example: 1000550152872026
select *
FROM Orders
where isnumeric([ord_no]) = 0
returns: 0 rows
select cast([ord_no] as bigint)
FROM Progression_PreCall_Orders o
order by [ord_no]
returns: Error converting data type varchar to bigint.
How do I get this 16 digit number into a math datatype so I can add and subtract another column from it?
UPDATE: Found scientific notation stored as varchar ex: 1.00054E+15
How do I convert that back into a number then?
DECIMAL datatype seems to work fine:
DECLARE #myVarchar AS VARCHAR(32)
SET #myVarchar = '1000550152872026'
DECLARE #myDecimal AS DECIMAL(38,0)
SET #myDecimal = CAST(#myVarchar AS DECIMAL(38,0))
SELECT #myDecimal + 1
Also, here's a quick example where IsNumeric returns 1 but converting to DECIMAL fails:
DECLARE #myVarchar AS VARCHAR(32)
SET #myVarchar = '1000550152872026E10'
SELECT ISNUMERIC(#myVarchar)
DECLARE #myDecimal AS DECIMAL(38,0)
SET #myDecimal = CAST(#myVarchar AS DECIMAL(38,0)) --This statement will fail
EDIT
You could try to CONVERT to float if you're dealing with values written in scientific notation:
DECLARE #Orders AS TABLE(OrderNum NVARCHAR(64), [Date] DATETIME)
INSERT INTO #Orders VALUES('100055015287202', GETDATE())
INSERT INTO #Orders VALUES('100055015287203', GETDATE())
INSERT INTO #Orders VALUES('1.00055015287E+15', GETDATE()) --sci notation
SELECT
CONVERT(FLOAT, OrderNum, 2) +
CAST(REPLACE(CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), GETDATE(), 120), '-', '') AS FLOAT)
FROM #Orders
WITH validOrds AS
(
SELECT ord_no
FROM Orders
WHERE ord_no NOT LIKE '%[^0-9]%'
)
SELECT cast(validOrds.ord_no as bigint) as ord_no
FROM validOrds
LEFT JOIN Orders ords
ON ords.ord_no = validOrds.ord_no
WHERE ords.ord_no is null
Take a look at this link for an explanation of why isnumeric isn't functioning the way you are assuming it would: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/IsNumeric/71512/
Take a look at this link for an SO post where a user has a similar problem as you:
Error converting data type varchar
hence, you should always use the correct datatype for each column unless you have a very specific reason to do so otherwise... Even then, you'll need to be extra careful when saving values to the column to ensure that they are indeed valid values
Related
I've come across an issue (that I've partially solved) but can't seem to find a reason behind the failing in the first place.
I have a field in a table which holds a combination of alpha and numerical values. The field is a char(20) data type (which is wrong, but unchangeable) and holds either a NULL value, 'Unknown' or the "numbers" 0, 50, 100. The char field pads the values with trailing white space. This is a known and we can't do a thing about it.
To remove the Unknown values, we have a series of coalesce statements in place, and these two return the error message as per the title.
,coalesce(DHMCC.[HESA Module Total Proportion Taught], 'Missing')
,cast(isnull(DHMCC.[HESA Module Total Proportion Taught] ,'Missing') as varchar(10))
The query I have is why am I getting this error when I'm not converting a data type of varchar to float (or am I?)
Does anyone have an idea as to where to look next to try to fix this error?
The STR() function accepts a float datatype as the first argument, therefore SQL Server is implicitly converting whatever you pass to this function, which in your case is the CHAR(20) column. Since unknown can't be converted to a float, you get the error.
If you run the following with the actual execution plan enabled:
DECLARE #T TABLE (Col CHAR(20));
INSERT #T VALUES (NULL);
SELECT Result = ISNULL(STR(Col, 25, 0), 'Missing')
FROM #T
Then checkthe execution plan XML you will see the implicit conversion:
<ScalarOperator ScalarString="isnull(str(CONVERT_IMPLICIT(float(53),[Col],0),(25),(0)),'Missing')">
The simplest solution is probably to use a case expression and not bother with any conversion at all (only if you know you will only have the 5 values you listed:
DECLARE #T TABLE (Col CHAR(20));
INSERT #T VALUES (NULL), ('0'), ('50'), ('100');--, ('Unknown');
SELECT Result = CASE WHEN Col IS NULL OR Col = 'Unknown' THEN 'Missing' ELSE Col END
FROM #T;
Result
---------
Missing
0
50
100
Missing
If you really want the STR() function, you can make the conversion explicit, but use TRY_CONVERT() so that anything that is not a float simply returns NULL:
DECLARE #T TABLE (Col CHAR(20));
INSERT #T VALUES (NULL), ('0'), ('50'), ('100');--, ('Unknown');
SELECT Result = ISNULL(STR(TRY_CONVERT(FLOAT, Col), 25, 0), 'Missing')
FROM #T
Result
------------
Missing
0
50
100
Missing
Although, since you the numbers you have stated are integers, I would be inclined to convert them to integers rather than floats:
DECLARE #T TABLE (Col CHAR(20));
INSERT #T VALUES (NULL), ('0'), ('50'), ('100'), ('Unknown');
SELECT Result = ISNULL(CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), TRY_CONVERT(INT, Col)), 'Missing')
FROM #T;
Result
---------
Missing
0
50
100
Missing
Thanks to #GarethD
I've only just come across TRY_CONVERT and this seems like the better option, so thanks him for that pointer, also trying with TRY_CAST as well.
The data really should be held in a varchar field, it's referential and not for calculation, and this seems to work equally as well,
-- Declare #varText as varchar(16) = '10 '
-- Declare #varText as char(16) = 'Unknown'
-- Declare #varText as char(16) = ''
SELECT
ISNULL(NULLIF(TRY_CAST(LTRIM(RTRIM(#varText)) as varchar(16)), ''), 'Missing') AS HESA
I've created this test scenario which works ok.
I have a conundrum....
There is a table with one NVARCHAR(50) Float column that has many rows with many numbers of various decimal lengths:
'3304.063'
'3304.0625'
'39.53'
'39.2'
I need to write a query to find only numbers with decimal places >= 4
First the query I wrote was:
SELECT
Column
FROM Tablename
WHERE Column LIKE '%.[0-9][0-9]%'
The above code finds all numbers with decimal places >= 2:
'3304.063'
'3304.0625'
'39.53'
Perfect! Now, I just need to increase the [0-9] by 2...
SELECT
Column
FROM Tablename
WHERE Column LIKE '%.[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]%'
this returned nothing! What?
Does anyone have an explanation as to what went wrong as well and/or a possible solution? I'm kind of stumped and my hunch is that it is some sort of 'LIKE' limitation..
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks.
After your edit, you stated you are using FLOAT which is an approximate value stored as 4 or 8 bytes, or 7 or 15 digits of precision. The documents explicitly state that not all values in the data type range can be represented exactly. It also states you can use the STR() function when converting it which you'll need to get your formatting right. Here is how:
declare #table table (columnName float)
insert into #table
values
('3304.063'),
('3304.0625'),
('39.53'),
('39.2')
--see the conversion
select * , str(columnName,20,4)
from #table
--now use it in a where clause.
--Return all values where the last digit isn't 0 from STR() the conversion
select *
from #table
where right(str(columnName,20,4),1) != 0
OLD ANSWER
Your LIKE statement would do it, and here is another way just to show they both work.
declare #table table (columnName varchar(64))
insert into #table
values
('3304.063'),
('3304.0625'),
('39.53'),
('39.2')
select *
from #table
where len(right(columnName,len(columnName) - charindex('.',columnName))) >= 4
select *
from #table
where columnName like '%.[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]%'
One thing that could be causing this is a space in the number somewhere... since you said the column type was VARCHAR this is a possibility, and could be avoided by storing the value as DECIMAL
declare #table table (columnName varchar(64))
insert into #table
values
('3304.063'),
('3304. 0625'), --notice the space here
('39.53'),
('39.2')
--this would return nothing
select *
from #table
where columnName like '%.[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]%'
How to find out if this is the case?
select *
from #table
where columnName like '% %'
Or, anything but numbers and decimals:
select *
from #table
where columnName like '%[^.0-9]%'
The following is working fine for me:
declare #tab table (val varchar(50))
insert into #tab
select '3304.063'
union select '3304.0625'
union select '39.53'
union select '39.2'
select * from #tab
where val like '%.[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]%'
Assuming your table only has numerical data, you can cast them to decimal and then compare:
SELECT COLUMN
FROM tablename
WHERE CAST(COLUMN AS DECIMAL(19,4)) <> CAST(COLUMN AS DECIMAL(19,3))
You'd want to test the performance of this against using the character data type solutions that others have already suggested.
You can use REVERSE:
declare #vals table ([Val] nvarchar(50))
insert into #vals values ('3304.063'), ('3304.0625'), ('39.53'), ('39.2')
select [Val]
from #Vals
where charindex('.',reverse([Val]))>4
I want to convert nvarchar data to float type.
In my case I have SalesValue column and I used this command
UPDATE Overseas
SET SalesValue = CONVERT(FLOAT, REPLACE([SalesValue],',','') )
My table has values like
201.01
40.50
215.12
550
304.201
But I get an error
SQL : Error converting data type nvarchar to float.
How can I solve this problem ?
You should find the values that do not match. In SQL Server 2012+, you can use try_convert(). That is not available. So, how about this?
SELECT SalesValue
FROM Overseas
WHERE SalesValue LIKE '%[^0-9,.]%' OR
SalesValue LIKE '%[.,]%[.,]%';
I think that covers the obvious irregularities: a character that is not numeric or two (or more) decimal points.
1st cast value by using below query and then update normally
SELECT
case when ISNUMERIC([SalesValue])=1
then CAST([SalesValue] AS FLOAT) else 0 end AS CastedValue)
FROM your_table_name
It sounds like to me your data still has something that is non numerical. I'm hoping that your application side had done a pretty good job at cleaning your data before inputting and the problem is probably you have a '$' in one or more of your fields.
Cast will fail when you have a non numerical char other then '.' in it (as you probably know which is why you removed ',').
I ran the below script to test this.
declare #myFloat float;
declare #test1 nvarchar(10) = '145.88';
declare #test2 nvarchar(10) = '4,145.88';
declare #test3 nvarchar(10) = '$4,145.88';
SELECT ISNUMERIC(#TEST3)
set #myFloat = CONVERT(FLOAT, REPLACE(#test1,',','') );
select #myFloat;
set #myFloat = CONVERT(FLOAT, REPLACE(#test2,',','') );
select #myFloat;
--THIS WILL FAIL
set #myFloat = CONVERT(FLOAT, REPLACE(#test3,',','') );
select #myFloat;
--THIS WILL NOT FAIL
set #myFloat = CONVERT(FLOAT, REPLACE(REPLACE(#test3,',',''),'$','') );
select #myFloat;
You can try running the below script on the column in question to see which columns you are having a problem with:
--run this on your table
SELECT SalesValue
FROM Overseas
WHERE ISNUMERIC(REPLACE(SalesValue,',','')) = 0
--test sample
/*
insert into #myTable
values ('145.88'),
('4,145.88'),
('$4,145.88'),
('$4,145.88%');
SELECT *
FROM #myTable
WHERE ISNUMERIC(REPLACE(amounts,',','')) = 0
--WHERE ISNUMERIC(REPLACE(REPLACE(amounts,',',''),'$','')) = 0 --this will remove results with $ also
*/
So your fix will be to simply change the line you provided to:
UPDATE Overseas SET SalesValue = CONVERT(FLOAT, REPLACE(REPLACE([SalesValue],',',''),'$','') )
Unless you found other chars in the results of prior script.
This will get you closer than ISNUMERIC()
declare #table table (SalesValue varchar(16))
insert into #table
values
('1e4'),
('$'),
('134.55'),
('66,9897'),
('14')
select
SalesValue
,case
when SalesValue NOT LIKE '%[^0-9,.]%'
then convert(decimal(16,4),replace(SalesValue,',','.'))
end
from
#table
I have a table that stores different info into a value column as varchar(max)
I need to be able to extract some of the info from this table, convert it to an integer and average the numbers. I'm running into an issue though when trying to convert.
This does not work:
select cast(value as float) as value
from table
Can anyone tell me how to properly convert this?
Presumably, the problem is that some values are not in a numeric format. Try this instead:
select (case when isnumeric(value) = 1 then cast(value as float) end)
from table
This converts all the numbers to float, and puts NULLs in the remaining fields.
If you want to see the values that are causing problems, use this:
select value
from table
where isnumeric(value) = 0 and value is not null
I want insert all rows of a table into another table, and I also want convert a nvarchar field into bigint, but when I use convert(bigint, col1) SQL Server shows an error:
Error converting data type nvarchar
to bigint
How can I fix this problem?
You could try to use ISNUMERIC to determine those rows that are indeed numeric:
UPDATE dbo.YourTable
SET BigIntColumn = CAST(NVarcharColumn AS BIGINT)
WHERE ISNUMERIC(NVarcharColumn) = 1
That would convert those rows that can be converted - the others need to be dealt with manually.
You should convert bigint to nvarchar not vice versa
cast(Other_Column_name as nvarchar) not cast (Column_Name as bigint)
you can try this:
CAST(CAST(col1 as NUMERIC) as BIGINT)
Here I convert navrchar value of column into bigInt and than perform Addition of thos two columns find blow :
SELECT (CAST(col1 AS BIGINT) + CAST(col2 AS BIGINT)) AS TotalValue from tableName