Data type conversion functions

Function

Data type conversion functions convert arguments from one data type to another.

Table 5-8 lists the data type conversion functions and their parameters.

**Table 5-8: Date type conversion functions**
Data type conversion function	Parameters
CAST	( expression AS datatype )
CONVERT	( datatype, expression [ , format-style ] )
HEXTOINT	( hexadecimal-string )
INTTOHEX	( integer-expr )
ISDATE	( string )
ISNUMERIC	( string )

Description

The DATE, DATETIME, DATEFORMAT, and YMD functions which convert expressions to dates, timestamps, or strings based on a date format are listed in the section “Date and time functions”. The STRING function, which converts expressions to a string, is discussed in the section “String functions”.

The database server carries out many type conversions automatically. For example, if a string is supplied where a numerical expression is required, the string is automatically converted to a number. For more information on automatic data type conversions carried out by Sybase IQ, see the section Data type conversions.