Numeric or Not Numeric

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Numeric or Not Numeric

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Toby White SSCertifiable Points: 6187 More actions · Answer 1

Good question. I ran up against an issue in data before where it was not actaully a valid numeric value, but passed the isnumeric test and broke the process upon insert. The only thing I would add beyond the difference in formating between countries is that you could just have some plain bad data like the following that would pass the isnumeric test

DECLARE @PrincipalAmount VARCHAR(15)SET @PrincipalAmount = '7,0,0,,,0.0,0,,,'

SELECT ISNUMERIC(@PrincipalAmount)

Regards,

Toby

Kelsey Thornton SSCrazy Points: 2157 More actions · Answer 2

kaspencer (2/22/2010)
<snip>
I have noticed a mixture of decimal point indicators on invoices these days, and it certainly isn't unusual to get one using the comma [,] as a decimal point rather than the more logical full-stop [.].
Kenneth Spencer

Who's to say that the full-stop is more "logical"? Why not the colon or semicolon?

Why not, indeed, the comma?

</devils advocate>

(Living in the Netherlands, I see the comma as decimal separator all the time... )

Kelsey Thornton
MBCS CITP

kaspencer SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4880 More actions · Answer 3

Ah, yes, maybe, Kelsey.

BUT if you are going to call it the "decimal point", then there is only only one punctuation symbol that resembles a point, and that is the full-stop. Surely?

Otherwise, then let's call it a decimal comma, a decimal exclamation mark, or even a decimal colon!

As for the thousands separator, the space is completely illogical, as, mechanistically, one doesn't know whether one is dealing with a list of numbers, or continuation of the previous number.

If ever there is a revolution, let's re-organise separators completely, as follows:

So that 100,678,830.56 could become 100T678T830D56.

Only joking!

Ken.

You never know: reading my book: "All about your computer" might just tell you something you never knew!
lulu.com/kaspencer

vk-kirov SSCertifiable Points: 7686 More actions · Answer 4

kaspencer (3/2/2010)
Otherwise, then let's call it a decimal comma

Maybe you'll be surprised by the fact that the decimal separator IS called 'decimal comma' in many countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator#Countries_using_Arabic_numerals_with_decimal_comma 🙂

Here's a quote from Wikipedia:

The decimal separator or decimal point or decimal comma is a symbol used to mark the boundary between the integral and the fractional parts of a decimal number in a positional numeral system.

alastors SSC Enthusiast Points: 157 More actions · Answer 5

alastors

SSC Enthusiast

Points: 157

March 2, 2010 at 7:49 am

#1127104

we just call it "coma" 😛

Paul White SSC Guru Points: 150467 More actions · Answer 6

ISNUMERIC must be one of the least useful of the built-in functions.

It would be nice to have a function to validate that an input can be CAST or CONVERTed to another type successfully.

Paul White
SQLPerformance.com
SQLkiwi blog
@SQL_Kiwi