CAST

CAST converts values from one data type to another.

Return Value

The data type specified by type_name.

Syntax

CAST(expr AS type_name)

Arguments

expr can be an expression in one of the data types.

type_name is one of the data types listed in Table 1-2, "Dimensional Data Types".

Table 3-1 shows which data types can be cast into which other built-in data types. NUMBER includes NUMBER, DECIMAL, and INTEGER. DATETIME includes DATE, TIMESTAMP, TIMESTAMP WITH TIMEZONE, and TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIMEZONE. INTERVAL includes INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND and INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH.

Table 3-1 Compatible Data Types

From	To BINARY_FLOAT, BINARY_DOUBLE	To CHAR, VARCHAR2	To NUMBER	To DATETIME, INTERVAL	To NCHAR, NVARCHAR2
BINARY_FLOAT, BINARY_DOUBLE	yes	yes	yes	no	yes
CHAR, VARCHAR2	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
NUMBER	yes	yes	yes	no	yes
DATETIME, INTERVAL	no	yes	no	yes	yes
NCHAR, NVARCHAR2	yes	no	yes	no	yes

Example

CAST('123.4567' AS NUMBER(10,2)) returns the value 123.46.