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Functions : Scalar functions : CAST
 

CAST

Syntax 

CAST (value_exp AS data_type)

Description

This function returns the value specified by value_exp converted to the specified data_type, where data_type is one of the following keywords:
• BIGINT
• BINARY
• BIT
• CHAR
• DECIMAL
• DATE
• DOUBLE
• FLOAT
• INTEGER
• LONGVARBINARY
• LONGVARCHAR
• NUMERIC
• REAL
• SMALLINT
• TIME
• TIMESTAMP
• TINYINT
• VARBINARY
• VARCHAR
• WCHAR
• WVARCHAR
• WLONGVARCHAR
The following table defines the precision, length and scale of the resulting expression.
Table 15: Length, precision, and scale keywords of the CAST function 
Keyword
Length
Precision
Scale
BIGINT
8
20
0
BINARY
256
255
0
BIT
256
1
0
CHAR
1
255
0
DATE
6
10
0
DOUBLE
8
15
0
FLOAT
8
15
0
INTEGER
4
10
0
LONGVARBINARY
1000000
1000000
0
LONGVARCHAR
1000000
1000000
0
NUMERIC
32
34
5
REAL
2
7
0
SMALLINT
4
5
0
TIME
6
8
0
TIMESTAMP
16
 
0
TINYINT
1
3
0
VARBINARY
1024
2048
0
VARCHAR
1024
2048
0
WCHAR
255
255
0
WLONGVARCHAR
2000000
1000000
0
WVARCHAR
2048
1024
0

Example

SELECT empno, CAST(empno AS VARCHAR) FROM emp
SELECT empno, CAST(empno AS SMALLINT) FROM emp