The only correction here is: you "return null" (not return ' ') in exception handler. Igor Neyman, OCP DBA ineyman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mercadante, Thomas F Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 10:46 AM To: 'oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' Subject: RE: Create view using CAST to change datatype Well, the first problem you have is that you obviously have a character value stored in that column. This is causing the ORA-01722 - invalid number error. This means that you will not be able to do this using just a view. If you still need to do this, you will need to create a function to attempt to convert the value to a number and trap the error. Something like: Create or replace function convert_it(in_str in varchar2) return number is begin return to_number(nvl(rtrim(in_str,' '),0)); exception when others then return ''; end; / CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW tomview AS SELECT col1, col2, convert_it(col1) col1_numb FROM tomtest / This will get rid of the ORA-1722 error, as it will return a null value for all non-numeric columns. As for the ORA-1002 error, I', not sure how you get that - I would fix the first one first and then see about the secnd one. good luck Tom Mercadante Oracle Certified Professional -----Original Message----- From: Saira Somani-Mendelin [mailto:saira_somani@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 10:41 AM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: Create view using CAST to change datatype I should also mention that along with the ORA-01722 error, I am also receiving the ORA-01002: Fetch out of sequence error. FYI, we are using version 8.1.7.4 and I am using TOAD on w2k pro. -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Saira Somani-Mendelin Sent: March 19, 2004 10:35 AM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: Create view using CAST to change datatype I'm not sure why I'm leaning towards CAST...(I claim ignorance!) In any case, I tried methods, both yours and Igor's, and received the same error: ORA-01722: invalid number Somewhere in this table, there is a strange value. I was trying to make life simpler without having to create multiple views to deal with these data value issues (filter the view by some criteria). So here's another question (just out of curiosity), how can I determine which value is causing me problems? Thanks for all your help so far! I appreciate the time. Saira -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mercadante, Thomas F Sent: March 19, 2004 10:10 AM To: 'oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' Subject: RE: Create view using CAST to change datatype Saira, This worked: CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW tomview AS SELECT col1, col2, cast(NVL(RTRIM(col1),0) AS NUMBER) col1_numb FROM tomtest Values for the TOMTEST table were (' ',1); SELECT * FROM tomview returns values of (' ', 1, 0) And I agree wih Igor - why are you using CAST rather than to_number? Tom Mercadante Oracle Certified Professional ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------