Numeric or Not Numeric
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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
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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
<devils advocate>
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 -
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 -
kaspencer (3/2/2010)
Otherwise, then let's call it a decimal commaMaybe 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.
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we just call it "coma"
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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.
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