Question

ORACLE -- convert "Varchar" to "Number"

Asked by: finance_teacher

How can I change the below varchar2 (500)
"CHARVALUE" column so "> 0" works on and
it skips all the non-numeric errors ?

There are 100+ records and only 80
of them can be converted to number.
-------------------------------------
SELECT
RESOURCECODE, CHARVALUE
FROM VWRESOURCEPROPASSIGN
Where
PROPERTYCODE = 'RSULF'  and
CHARVALUE > 0

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Asked On
2009-10-30 at 07:59:43ID24858255
Tags

ORACLE -- convert "Varchar" to "Number"

Topics

Oracle Database

,

Oracle 10.x

,

PL / SQL

Participating Experts
3
Points
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: sdstuberPosted on 2009-10-30 at 08:07:34ID: 25703694

select RESOURCECODE, CHARVALUE
from (SELECT
RESOURCECODE, CHARVALUE
FROM VWRESOURCEPROPASSIGN
Where
PROPERTYCODE = 'RSULF'  and
regexp_like(charvalue,'[0-9]')
) where to_number(charvalue) > 0

 

by: sdstuberPosted on 2009-10-30 at 08:08:47ID: 25703712

or, since >0 is "not <= 0"

SELECT
RESOURCECODE, CHARVALUE
FROM VWRESOURCEPROPASSIGN
Where
PROPERTYCODE = 'RSULF' and
CHARVALUE != '0' -- remove 0's
and not charvalue like '-%' -- remove negatives

 

by: finance_teacherPosted on 2009-10-30 at 08:10:22ID: 25703724

sdstuber, attached error happens.

 

by: sdstuberPosted on 2009-10-30 at 08:14:08ID: 25703764

looks like oracle is "helping" you by pushing the outer predicate into the inner view
which then creates invalid conversions

so, go with my second option (small tweak added, making sure they are numbers)

SELECT
RESOURCECODE, CHARVALUE
FROM VWRESOURCEPROPASSIGN
Where PROPERTYCODE = 'RSULF'
and regexp_like(charvalue,'[0-9]+') -- make sure they are numbers
and CHARVALUE != '0' -- remove 0's
and not charvalue like '-%' -- remove negatives

 

by: finance_teacherPosted on 2009-10-30 at 08:14:31ID: 25703770

sdstuber, below also gets "TEXT" records.
How can I extract ONLY "number records" ?
-------------------------------------------------------------
SELECT
RESOURCECODE, CHARVALUE
FROM VWRESOURCEPROPASSIGN
Where
PROPERTYCODE = 'RSULF' and
CHARVALUE != '0' -- remove 0's
and not charvalue like '-%' -- remove negatives
-------------------------------------------------------------
Maybe something like the below ?
SELECT
RESOURCECODE, CHARVALUE
FROM VWRESOURCEPROPASSIGN
Where
PROPERTYCODE = 'RSULF'  and
CONVERT TO NUMBER (CHARVALUE > 0 and < 99999999999)
....

 

by: sdstuberPosted on 2009-10-30 at 08:15:38ID: 25703778

simul-post,  see above

 

by: finance_teacherPosted on 2009-10-30 at 08:20:05ID: 25703831

Below works good, and displays "<10ppm" records.

SELECT
RESOURCECODE, CHARVALUE
FROM VWRESOURCEPROPASSIGN
Where PROPERTYCODE = 'RSULF'
and regexp_like(charvalue,'[0-9]+') -- make sure they are numbers
and CHARVALUE != '0' -- remove 0's
and not charvalue like '-%' -- remove negatives

 

by: AndytwPosted on 2009-10-30 at 08:21:13ID: 25703840

Or you can take advantage of DECODE (Oracle performs "short-circuit" evaluation on the search values).

Try the following:

SELECT RESOURCECODE,
       CHARVALUE
FROM   VWRESOURCEPROPASSIGN
WHERE  PROPERTYCODE = 'RSULF'
AND    decode(regexp_instr(CHARVALUE, '\d+'),
              0,
              NULL,
              to_number(CHARVALUE)) > 0

                                              
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by: mrjoltcolaPosted on 2009-10-30 at 08:32:49ID: 25703961

A reminder, the above solutions will not use indexes, unless a function based index is used. If the query is a common query on a lot of records, it is possible to create a FBI on the regex for valid numbers, so invalid numbers will not populate the index, plus the query will be more efficient.

Also, the choice of solution above is not good. "simul-post,  see above" is not the answer.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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