Try_Convert for SQL Server 2008 R2

Question

I'm using SQL Server 2008 R2 and have a VARCHAR column I want to convert to DECIMAL(28,10) using CONVERT. But many of those rows are badly formatted, so it is not possible to parse them to a number. In that case I just want to skip those by setting result to 0 or NULL.

I know there is a new statement in SQL Server 2012 (TRY_CONVERT()) that would be handy.

Is this possible in 2008 or must I wait until we update to next version SQL 2012?

EDIT

Unfortunately ISNUMERIC() is not reliable in this case. I tried

ISNUMERIC(myCol) = 1

That returns true for rows that CONVERT is not able to convert to DECIMAL.

Answer 1

When using XML in SQL Server you can try to cast to a data type and receive null values where the cast fails.

declare @T table
(
  Col varchar(50)
)

insert into @T values
('1'),
('1.1'),
('1,1'),
('1a')

select cast('' as xml).value('sql:column("Col") cast as xs:decimal ?', 
                             'decimal(28,10)') as Col
from @T

Result:

Col
-------------
1.0000000000
1.1000000000
NULL
NULL

Answer 2

Since this is to be a permanent change, then I'd do it as a two step process - first, remove the invalid text, then convert the column.

To remove the invalid text, I'd do something like:

UPDATE [Table]
SET [Column] = NULL
WHERE [Column] LIKE '%[^0-9.]%' or
LEN([Column]) - LEN(REPLACE([Column],'.','')) > 1 or
LEN([Column]) > 28

After that's done, everything that remains should be convertible just by changing the column definition

ALTER TABLE [Table] ALTER COLUMN [Column] decimal(28,10)

Answer 3

I wrote a useful scalar function to simulate the TRY_CAST function of SQL SERVER 2012 in SQL Server 2008.

dbo.TRY_CAST(Expression, Data_Type, ReturnValueIfErrorCast)

The two main differences with TRY_CAST Function fo SQL Server 2012 are that you must pass 3 parameters and you must additionally perform an explicit CONVERT or CAST to the field. However, it is still very useful because it allows you to return a default value if CAST is not performed correctly.

FUNCTION CODE:

DECLARE @strSQL NVARCHAR(1000)
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM dbo.sysobjects WHERE id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[TRY_CAST]'))
    BEGIN
        SET @strSQL = 'CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[TRY_CAST] () RETURNS INT AS BEGIN RETURN 0 END'
        EXEC sys.sp_executesql @strSQL
    END

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

/*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Description:    
                    Syntax 
                    ---------------
                    dbo.TRY_CAST(Expression, Data_Type, ReturnValueIfErrorCast)

                    +---------------------------+-----------------------+
                    |   Expression              |   VARCHAR(8000)       |
                    +---------------------------+-----------------------+
                    |   Data_Type               |   VARCHAR(8000)       |
                    +---------------------------+-----------------------+
                    |   ReturnValueIfErrorCast  |   SQL_VARIANT = NULL  |
                    +---------------------------+-----------------------+


                    Arguments
                    ---------------
                    expression
                    The value to be cast. Any valid expression.

                    Data_Type
                    The data type into which to cast expression.

                    ReturnValueIfErrorCast
                    Value returned if cast fails or is not supported. Required. Set the DEFAULT value by default.


                    Return Type
                    ----------------
                    Returns value cast to SQL_VARIANT type if the cast succeeds; otherwise, returns null if the parameter @pReturnValueIfErrorCast is set to DEFAULT, 
                    or that the user indicates.


                    Remarks
                    ----------------
                    dbo.TRY_CAST function simulates the TRY_CAST function reserved of SQL SERVER 2012 for using in SQL SERVER 2008. 
                    dbo.TRY_CAST function takes the value passed to it and tries to convert it to the specified Data_Type. 
                    If the cast succeeds, dbo.TRY_CAST returns the value as SQL_VARIANT type; if the cast doesn´t succees, null is returned if the parameter @pReturnValueIfErrorCast is set to DEFAULT. 
                    If the Data_Type is unsupported will return @pReturnValueIfErrorCast.
                    dbo.TRY_CAST function requires user make an explicit CAST or CONVERT in ANY statements.
                    This version of dbo.TRY_CAST only supports CAST for INT, DATE, NUMERIC and BIT types.


                    Examples
                    ====================================================================================================

                    --A. Test TRY_CAST function returns null

                        SELECT   
                            CASE WHEN dbo.TRY_CAST('6666666166666212', 'INT', DEFAULT) IS NULL   
                            THEN 'Cast failed'  
                            ELSE 'Cast succeeded'  
                        END AS Result; 

                    GO

                    --B. Error Cast With User Value

                        SELECT   
                            dbo.TRY_CAST('2147483648', 'INT', DEFAULT) AS [Error Cast With DEFAULT],
                            dbo.TRY_CAST('2147483648', 'INT', -1) AS [Error Cast With User Value],
                            dbo.TRY_CAST('2147483648', 'INT', NULL) AS [Error Cast With User NULL Value]; 

                        GO 

                    --C. Additional CAST or CONVERT required in any assignment statement

                        DECLARE @IntegerVariable AS INT

                        SET @IntegerVariable = CAST(dbo.TRY_CAST(123, 'INT', DEFAULT) AS INT)

                        SELECT @IntegerVariable

                        GO 

                        IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#temp') IS NOT NULL
                            DROP TABLE #temp

                        CREATE TABLE #temp (
                            Id INT IDENTITY
                            , FieldNumeric NUMERIC(3, 1)
                            )

                        INSERT INTO dbo.#temp (FieldNumeric)
                        SELECT CAST(dbo.TRY_CAST(12.3, 'NUMERIC(3,1)', 0) AS NUMERIC(3, 1));--Need explicit CAST on INSERT statements

                        SELECT *
                        FROM #temp

                        DROP TABLE #temp

                        GO 

                    --D. Supports CAST for INT, DATE, NUMERIC and BIT types.

                        SELECT dbo.TRY_CAST(2147483648, 'INT', 0) AS [Cast failed]
                            , dbo.TRY_CAST(2147483647, 'INT', 0) AS [Cast succeeded]
                            , SQL_VARIANT_PROPERTY(dbo.TRY_CAST(212, 'INT', 0), 'BaseType') AS [BaseType];

                        SELECT dbo.TRY_CAST('AAAA0101', 'DATE', DEFAULT) AS [Cast failed]
                            , dbo.TRY_CAST('20160101', 'DATE', DEFAULT) AS [Cast succeeded]
                            , SQL_VARIANT_PROPERTY(dbo.TRY_CAST('2016-01-01', 'DATE', DEFAULT), 'BaseType') AS [BaseType];

                        SELECT dbo.TRY_CAST(1.23, 'NUMERIC(3,1)', DEFAULT) AS [Cast failed]
                            , dbo.TRY_CAST(12.3, 'NUMERIC(3,1)', DEFAULT) AS [Cast succeeded]
                            , SQL_VARIANT_PROPERTY(dbo.TRY_CAST(12.3, 'NUMERIC(3,1)', DEFAULT), 'BaseType') AS [BaseType];

                        SELECT dbo.TRY_CAST('A', 'BIT', DEFAULT) AS [Cast failed]
                            , dbo.TRY_CAST(1, 'BIT', DEFAULT) AS [Cast succeeded]
                            , SQL_VARIANT_PROPERTY(dbo.TRY_CAST('123', 'BIT', DEFAULT), 'BaseType') AS [BaseType];

                        GO 

                    --E. B. TRY_CAST return NULL on unsupported data_types

                        SELECT dbo.TRY_CAST(4, 'xml', DEFAULT) AS [unsupported];  

                        GO  

                    ====================================================================================================

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Responsible:    Javier Pardo 
    Date:           diciembre 29/2016
    WB tests:       Javier Pardo 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Update by:      Javier Eduardo Pardo Moreno 
    Date:           febrero 16/2017
    Id update:      JEPM20170216
    Description:    Fix  ISNUMERIC function makes it unreliable. SELECT dbo.TRY_CAST('+', 'INT', 0) will yield Msg 8114, 
                    Level 16, State 5, Line 16 Error converting data type varchar to float.
                    ISNUMERIC() function treats few more characters as numeric, like: – (minus), + (plus), $ (dollar), \ (back slash), (.)dot and (,)comma
                    Collaborator aperiooculus (http://stackoverflow.com/users/3083382/aperiooculus )

                    Fix dbo.TRY_CAST('2013/09/20', 'datetime', DEFAULT) for supporting DATETIME format

    WB tests:       Javier Pardo

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/

ALTER FUNCTION dbo.TRY_CAST
(
    @pExpression AS VARCHAR(8000),
    @pData_Type AS VARCHAR(8000),
    @pReturnValueIfErrorCast AS SQL_VARIANT = NULL
)
RETURNS SQL_VARIANT
AS
BEGIN
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    --  INT 
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    IF @pData_Type = 'INT'
    BEGIN
        IF ISNUMERIC(@pExpression) = 1 AND @pExpression NOT IN ('-','+','$','.',',','\')    --JEPM20170216
        BEGIN
            DECLARE @pExpressionINT AS FLOAT = CAST(@pExpression AS FLOAT)

            IF @pExpressionINT BETWEEN - 2147483648.0 AND 2147483647.0
            BEGIN
                RETURN CAST(@pExpressionINT as INT)
            END
            ELSE
            BEGIN
                RETURN @pReturnValueIfErrorCast
            END --FIN IF @pExpressionINT BETWEEN - 2147483648.0 AND 2147483647.0
        END
        ELSE
        BEGIN
            RETURN @pReturnValueIfErrorCast
        END -- FIN IF ISNUMERIC(@pExpression) = 1
    END -- FIN IF @pData_Type = 'INT'

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    --  DATE    
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    IF @pData_Type IN ('DATE','DATETIME')
    BEGIN
        IF ISDATE(@pExpression) = 1
        BEGIN

            DECLARE @pExpressionDATE AS DATETIME = cast(@pExpression AS DATETIME)

            IF @pData_Type = 'DATE'
            BEGIN
                RETURN cast(@pExpressionDATE as DATE)
            END

            IF @pData_Type = 'DATETIME'
            BEGIN
                RETURN cast(@pExpressionDATE as DATETIME)
            END

        END
        ELSE 
        BEGIN

            DECLARE @pExpressionDATEReplaced AS VARCHAR(50) = REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(@pExpression,'\',''),'/',''),'-','')

            IF ISDATE(@pExpressionDATEReplaced) = 1
            BEGIN
                IF @pData_Type = 'DATE'
                BEGIN
                    RETURN cast(@pExpressionDATEReplaced as DATE)
                END

                IF @pData_Type = 'DATETIME'
                BEGIN
                    RETURN cast(@pExpressionDATEReplaced as DATETIME)
                END

            END
            ELSE
            BEGIN
                RETURN @pReturnValueIfErrorCast
            END
        END --FIN IF ISDATE(@pExpression) = 1
    END --FIN IF @pData_Type = 'DATE'

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    --  NUMERIC 
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    IF @pData_Type LIKE 'NUMERIC%'
    BEGIN

        IF ISNUMERIC(@pExpression) = 1
        BEGIN

            DECLARE @TotalDigitsOfType AS INT = SUBSTRING(@pData_Type,CHARINDEX('(',@pData_Type)+1,  CHARINDEX(',',@pData_Type) - CHARINDEX('(',@pData_Type) - 1)
                , @TotalDecimalsOfType AS INT = SUBSTRING(@pData_Type,CHARINDEX(',',@pData_Type)+1,  CHARINDEX(')',@pData_Type) - CHARINDEX(',',@pData_Type) - 1)
                , @TotalDigitsOfValue AS INT 
                , @TotalDecimalsOfValue AS INT 
                , @TotalWholeDigitsOfType AS INT 
                , @TotalWholeDigitsOfValue AS INT 

            SET @pExpression = REPLACE(@pExpression, ',','.')

            SET @TotalDigitsOfValue = LEN(REPLACE(@pExpression, '.',''))
            SET @TotalDecimalsOfValue = CASE Charindex('.', @pExpression)
                                        WHEN 0
                                            THEN 0
                                        ELSE Len(Cast(Cast(Reverse(CONVERT(VARCHAR(50), @pExpression, 128)) AS FLOAT) AS BIGINT))
                                        END 
            SET @TotalWholeDigitsOfType = @TotalDigitsOfType - @TotalDecimalsOfType
            SET @TotalWholeDigitsOfValue = @TotalDigitsOfValue - @TotalDecimalsOfValue

            -- The total digits can not be greater than the p part of NUMERIC (p, s)
            -- The total of decimals can not be greater than the part s of NUMERIC (p, s)
            -- The total digits of the whole part can not be greater than the subtraction between p and s
            IF (@TotalDigitsOfValue <= @TotalDigitsOfType) AND (@TotalDecimalsOfValue <= @TotalDecimalsOfType) AND (@TotalWholeDigitsOfValue <= @TotalWholeDigitsOfType)
            BEGIN
                DECLARE @pExpressionNUMERIC AS FLOAT
                SET @pExpressionNUMERIC = CAST (ROUND(@pExpression, @TotalDecimalsOfValue) AS FLOAT) 

                RETURN @pExpressionNUMERIC --Returns type FLOAT
            END 
            else
            BEGIN
                RETURN @pReturnValueIfErrorCast
            END-- FIN IF (@TotalDigitisOfValue <= @TotalDigits) AND (@TotalDecimalsOfValue <= @TotalDecimals) 

        END
        ELSE 
        BEGIN
            RETURN @pReturnValueIfErrorCast
        END --FIN IF ISNUMERIC(@pExpression) = 1
    END --IF @pData_Type LIKE 'NUMERIC%'

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    --  BIT 
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    IF @pData_Type LIKE 'BIT'
    BEGIN
        IF ISNUMERIC(@pExpression) = 1
        BEGIN
            RETURN CAST(@pExpression AS BIT) 
        END
        ELSE 
        BEGIN
            RETURN @pReturnValueIfErrorCast
        END --FIN IF ISNUMERIC(@pExpression) = 1
    END --IF @pData_Type LIKE 'BIT'


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    --  FLOAT   
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    IF @pData_Type LIKE 'FLOAT'
    BEGIN
        IF ISNUMERIC(REPLACE(REPLACE(@pExpression, CHAR(13), ''), CHAR(10), '')) = 1
        BEGIN

            RETURN CAST(@pExpression AS FLOAT) 
        END
        ELSE 
        BEGIN

            IF REPLACE(@pExpression, CHAR(13), '') = '' --Only white spaces are replaced, not new lines
            BEGIN
                RETURN 0
            END
            ELSE 
            BEGIN
                RETURN @pReturnValueIfErrorCast
            END --IF REPLACE(@pExpression, CHAR(13), '') = '' 

        END --FIN IF ISNUMERIC(@pExpression) = 1
    END --IF @pData_Type LIKE 'FLOAT'

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    --  Any other unsupported data type will return NULL or the value assigned by the user to @pReturnValueIfErrorCast  
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    RETURN @pReturnValueIfErrorCast



END

For now only supports the data types INT, DATE, DATETIME, NUMERIC, BIT and FLOAT. You can find the last versión of this code in the next link below and we help each other to improve it. TRY_CAST Function for SQL Server 2008 https://gist.github.com/jotapardo/800881eba8c5072eb8d99ce6eb74c8bb

Answer 4

You can write your own custom parser in C# and use SQLCLR, using for example Decimal.Parse(). Do not atempt to use ISNUMERIC, is notoriously incorrect (returns TRUE for strings that fail to CAST).

Answer 5

Finally found out how to make it with the help from SO and Google.

The update statement:

UPDATE PriceTerm 
SET PercentAddition = CONVERT(decimal(28,10), RTRIM(LTRIM(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(AdditionalDescription,'%',''), ',','.'), '&', '')))) 
WHERE AdditionalDescription LIKE '%[%]%' AND
dbo.isreallynumeric(RTRIM(LTRIM(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(AdditionalDescription,'%',''), ',','.'), '&', '')))) = 1 AND
PercentAddition = 0

First I search for % char as most of the times that is used as a marker for the percentvalue. But there is also random other uses. It turned out that ISNUMERIC was not reliable in my case.

What really make difference is the call to stored procedure isreallynumeric from here.

So

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.isReallyNumeric  
(  
    @num VARCHAR(64)  
)  
RETURNS BIT  
BEGIN  
    IF LEFT(@num, 1) = '-'  
        SET @num = SUBSTRING(@num, 2, LEN(@num))  

    DECLARE @pos TINYINT  

    SET @pos = 1 + LEN(@num) - CHARINDEX('.', REVERSE(@num))  

    RETURN CASE  
    WHEN PATINDEX('%[^0-9.-]%', @num) = 0  
        AND @num NOT IN ('.', '-', '+', '^') 
        AND LEN(@num)>0  
        AND @num NOT LIKE '%-%' 
        AND  
        (  
            ((@pos = LEN(@num)+1)  
            OR @pos = CHARINDEX('.', @num))  
        )  
    THEN  
        1  
    ELSE  
    0  
    END  
END  
GO 

Answer 6

I prefer simple solutions and made a SP like following.

CREATE PROC TRY_CAST 
(   
    @valueToBeParsed VARCHAR(64), @parsedValue INT OUTPUT
)
AS
BEGIN
    BEGIN TRY
        SELECT @parsedValue = cast(@valueToBeParsed as int)
    END TRY
    BEGIN CATCH
    SET @parsedValue = null
    END CATCH
END
GO

and used it like following

DECLARE @val int
EXEC TRY_CAST '1w', @val out
select @val

Answer 7

CASE WHEN ISNUMERIC(yourColumn) = 1 
THEN CAST(yourColumn AS DECIMAL(28,10)) 
ELSE NULL --or Zero
END AS yourColumName

2019 and still using a 2008 server so I had the same question. The above worked for me.

Answer 8

SQL SERVER 2008 R2 have a function TRY_CAST but if you config your DB with compatibility to 2005 you found that SQL SERVER not-recognize it.

I used function that create @jotapardo but rename TRY_CAST2 because SS in this case recognized function.