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Checking if varchar2 column contains only numbers
What is the quickest way of checking if a varchar2 column contains only numeric values?
Use the TO_NUMBER function on the column. It will generate an error if the column contains more than just numbers. For instance, I'll set up a quick table with two rows of data:
ORA9I SQL> create table test (val varchar2(10));
Table created.
ORA9I SQL> insert into test values ('abc');
1 row created.
ORA9I SQL> insert into test values (123);
1 row created.
ORA9I SQL> commit;
Commit complete.
ORA9I SQL> select * from test;
VAL
----------
abc
123
Now, I'll use the TO_NUMBER function to determine if this column has a row with non-number values.
ORA9I SQL> select to_number(val) from test where
val='123';
TO_NUMBER(VAL)
--------------
123
Since this row only contain numbers in that column, a valid value was returned.
ORA9I SQL> select to_number(val) from test where
val='abc';
select to_number(val) from test where val='abc'
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01722: invalid number
Since this row did not contain valid numbers in the column an ORA-1722 error was raised.
ORA9I SQL> select to_number(val) from test;
select to_number(val) from test
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01722: invalid number
In the above query, I used every row in the table (there is no WHERE clause). This ORA-1722 error tells me that some row in the table does not have a valid number. It doesn't tell me which row in the table though. But it is a quick and easy test.
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