Tobar (3/26/2013)
I see that part, but the error I was getting, which I should have mentioned in the beginning, was"Error converting data type nvarchar to numeric". And I don't think your example would explain how an intermediate conversion to float would make it all work.
SELECT convert(decimal(3,1),convert(float, '333.14'))I appreciate your interest in helping me understand this.
OK sorry:
you really get this error in SSMS:
SELECT convert(decimal(3,1),convert(float, '333.14'))
Msg 8115, Level 16, State 6, Line 1
Arithmetic overflow error converting float to data type numeric.
the specific reason is the definition of Decimal(3,1);
that says 3 significant digits TOTAL, and one of those digits is to the right of the decimal point.
333.14 is five significant digits, and two to teh right of the decimal point; so it will not fit in the defined size.
Lowell