CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sqlmysqloracle-database
jonny
jonny

Reputation: 736

cross-dbms way to check if string is numeric

Ok, I have this field: code varchar(255). It contains some values used in our export routine like

DB84
DB34
3567
3568

I need to select only auto-generated (fully numeric) fields 

WHERE is_numeric(table.code)

is_numeric() checks if code field contains only positive digits.

Can you propose anything that will work both under mysql 5.1 and oracle 10g?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 3650

Answers (1)

RichardTheKiwi
RichardTheKiwi

Reputation: 107716

Below are three separate implementations for each of SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle. None use (or can) the same approach, so there doesn't seem to be a cross DBMS way to do it. For MySQL and Oracle, only the simple integer test is show; for SQL Server, the full numeric test is shown.

For SQL Server: note that isnumeric('.') returns 1.. but it can not actually be converted to float. Some text like '1e6' cannot be converted to numeric directly, but you can pass through float, then numeric.

;with tmp(x) as (
    select 'db01' union all select '1' union all select '1e2' union all
    select '1234' union all select '' union all select null union all
    select '1.2e4' union all select '1.e10' union all select '0' union all
    select '1.2e+4' union all select '1.e-10' union all select '1e--5' union all
    select '.' union all select '.123' union all select '1.1.23' union all
    select '-.123' union all select '-1.123' union all select '--1' union all
    select '---1.1' union all select '+1.123' union all select '++3' union all
    select '-+1.123' union all select '1 1' union all select '1e1.3' union all
    select '1.234' union all select 'e4' union all select '+.123' union all
    select '1-' union all select '-3e-4' union all select '+3e-4'  union all
    select '+3e+4' union all select '-3.2e+4' union all select '1e1e1' union all
    select '-1e-1-1')

select x, isnumeric(x),
    case when x not like '%[^0-9]%' and x >'' then convert(int, x) end as SimpleInt,
    case
    when x is null or x = '' then null -- blanks
    when x like '%[^0-9e.+-]%' then null -- non valid char found
    when x like 'e%' or x like '%e%[e.]%' then null -- e cannot be first, and cannot be followed by e/.
    when x like '%e%_%[+-]%' then null -- nothing must come between e and +/-
    when x='.' or x like '%.%.%' then null -- no more than one decimal, and not the decimal alone
    when x like '%[^e][+-]%' then null -- no more than one of either +/-, and it must be at the start
    when x like '%[+-]%[+-]%' and not x like '%[+-]%e[+-]%' then null
    else convert(float,x)
    end
from tmp order by 2, 3

For MySQL

create table tmp(x varchar(100));
insert into tmp
    select 'db01' union all select '1' union all select '1e2' union all
    select '1234' union all select '' union all select null union all
    select '1.2e4' union all select '1.e10' union all select '0' union all
    select '1.2e+4' union all select '1.e-10' union all select '1e--5' union all
    select '.' union all select '.123' union all select '1.1.23' union all
    select '-.123' union all select '-1.123' union all select '--1' union all
    select '---1.1' union all select '+1.123' union all select '++3' union all
    select '-+1.123' union all select '1 1' union all select '1e1.3' union all
    select '1.234' union all select 'e4' union all select '+.123' union all
    select '1-' union all select '-3e-4' union all select '+3e-4'  union all
    select '+3e+4' union all select '-3.2e+4' union all select '1e1e1' union all
    select '-1e-1-1';

select x,
    case when x not regexp('[^0-9]') then x*1 end as SimpleInt
from tmp order by 2

For Oracle

case when REGEXP_LIKE(col, '[^0-9]') then col*1 end

Upvotes: 4

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