VALIDATE_CONVERSION

Syntax

Description of the illustration validate_conversion.eps

Purpose

VALIDATE_CONVERSION determines whether expr can be converted to the specified data type. If expr can be successfully converted, then this function returns 1; otherwise, this function returns 0. If expr evaluates to null, then this function returns 1. If an error occurs while evaluating expr, then this function returns the error.

For expr, specify a SQL expression. The acceptable data types for expr, and the purpose of the optional fmt and nlsparam arguments, depend on the data type you specify for type_name.

For type_name, specify the data type to which you want to convert expr. You can specify the following data types:

BINARY_DOUBLE

If you specify BINARY_DOUBLE, then expr can be any expression that evaluates to a character string of CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2 data type, or a numeric value of type NUMBER, BINARY_FLOAT, or BINARY_DOUBLE. The optional fmt and nlsparam arguments serve the same purpose as for the TO_BINARY_DOUBLE function. Refer to TO_BINARY_DOUBLE for more information.
BINARY_FLOAT

If you specify BINARY_FLOAT, then expr can be any expression that evaluates to a character string of CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2 data type, or a numeric value of type NUMBER, BINARY_FLOAT, or BINARY_DOUBLE. The optional fmt and nlsparam arguments serve the same purpose as for the TO_BINARY_FLOAT function. Refer to TO_BINARY_FLOAT for more information.
DATE

If you specify DATE, then expr can be any expression that evaluates to a character string of CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2 data type. The optional fmt and nlsparam arguments serve the same purpose as for the TO_DATE function. Refer to TO_DATE for more information.
INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND

If you specify INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND, then expr can be any expression that evaluates to a character string of CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2 data type, and must contain a value in either the SQL interval format or the ISO duration format. The optional fmt and nlsparam arguments do not apply for this data type. Refer to TO_DSINTERVAL for more information on the SQL interval format and the ISO duration format.
INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH

If you specify INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH, then expr can be any expression that evaluates to a character string of CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2 data type, and must contain a value in either the SQL interval format or the ISO duration format. The optional fmt and nlsparam arguments do not apply for this data type. Refer to TO_YMINTERVAL for more information on the SQL interval format and the ISO duration format.
NUMBER

If you specify NUMBER, then expr can be any expression that evaluates to a character string of CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2 data type, or a numeric value of type NUMBER, BINARY_FLOAT, or BINARY_DOUBLE. The optional fmt and nlsparam arguments serve the same purpose as for the TO_NUMBER function. Refer to TO_NUMBER for more information.

If expr is a value of type NUMBER, then the VALIDATE_CONVERSION function verifies that expr is a legal numeric value. If expr is not a legal numeric value, then the function returns 0. This enables you to identify corrupt numeric values in your database.
TIMESTAMP

If you specify TIMESTAMP, then expr can be any expression that evaluates to a character string of CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2 data type. The optional fmt and nlsparam arguments serve the same purpose as for the TO_TIMESTAMP function. If you omit fmt, then expr must be in the default format of the TIMESTAMP data type, which is determined by the NLS_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT initialization parameter. Refer to TO_TIMESTAMP for more information.
TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE

If you specify TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE, then expr can be any expression that evaluates to a character string of CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2 data type. The optional fmt and nlsparam arguments serve the same purpose as for the TO_TIMESTAMP_TZ function. If you omit fmt, then expr must be in the default format of the TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE data type, which is determined by the NLS_TIMESTAMP_TZ_FORMAT initialization parameter. Refer to TO_TIMESTAMP_TZ for more information.
TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE

If you specify TIMESTAMP, then expr can be any expression that evaluates to a character string of CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2 data type. The optional fmt and nlsparam arguments serve the same purpose as for the TO_TIMESTAMP function. If you omit fmt, then expr must be in the default format of the TIMESTAMP data type, which is determined by the NLS_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT initialization parameter. Refer to TO_TIMESTAMP for more information.

Examples

In each of the following statements, the specified value can be successfully converted to the specified data type. Therefore, each of these statements returns a value of 1.

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION(1000 AS BINARY_DOUBLE)
  FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('1234.56' AS BINARY_FLOAT)
  FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('July 20, 1969, 20:18' AS DATE,
    'Month dd, YYYY, HH24:MI', 'NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE = American')
  FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('200 00:00:00' AS INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND)
  FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('P1Y2M' AS INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH)
  FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('$100,00' AS NUMBER,
    '$999D99', 'NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS = '',.''')
  FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('29-Jan-02 17:24:00' AS TIMESTAMP,
    'DD-MON-YY HH24:MI:SS')
  FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('1999-12-01 11:00:00 -8:00'
    AS TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE, 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS TZH:TZM')
  FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('11-May-16 17:30:00'
    AS TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE, 'DD-MON-YY HH24:MI:SS')
  FROM DUAL;

The following statement returns 0, because the specified value cannot be converted to BINARY_FLOAT:

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('$29.99' AS BINARY_FLOAT)
  FROM DUAL;

The following statement returns 1, because the specified number format model enables the value to be converted to BINARY_FLOAT:

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('$29.99' AS BINARY_FLOAT, '$99D99')
  FROM DUAL;