TO_NUMBER
Syntax
Purpose
TO_NUMBER converts expr to a value of NUMBER datatype. The expr can be a
BINARY_FLOAT or BINARY_DOUBLE value or a value of CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or
NVARCHAR2 datatype containing a number in the format specified by the optional
format model fmt.
This function does not support CLOB data directly. However, CLOBs can be passed in
as arguments through implicit data conversion.
Examples
The following examples convert character string data into a number:
UPDATE employees SET salary = salary +
TO_NUMBER(‘100.00’, ‘9G999D99’)
WHERE last_name = ‘Perkins’;
The ‘nlsparam’ argument in this function has the same purpose as it does in the
TO_CHAR function for number conversions. Please refer to TO_CHAR (number) on
page 5-192 for more information.
SELECT TO_NUMBER(‘-AusDollars100′,’L9G999D99’,
‘ NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS = ”,.”
See Also: “Datatype Comparison Rules” on page 2-37 for more
information.
TO_NCLOB (
lob_column
char
)
TO_NUMBER ( expr
, fmt
, ’ nlsparam ’
)
TO_SINGLE_BYTE
5-200 Oracle Database SQL Reference
NLS_CURRENCY = ”AusDollars”
‘) “Amount”
FROM DUAL;
Amount
-100