Re: Q: IsNumeric-function ?

[Andrew Barnett <abarnett@ISD.HIH.COM.AU>]

>We use SQRWB/3.0.7.0.1 in Sun/Solaris & Oracle 7.1 and I
>needed to check in my program if first character in field
>is numeric or not.
>
>At first I tried to look in SQR-functions, but found nothing
>to this purpose. Then I tried to do it in SQL, but couldn't think
>of anything else but ugly decode(substr(field,1,1),1,'YES',2, ....
>
>Does anybody know any way to do this easier in SQR or in Oracle SQL?
<SNIP>
>timo.kytta@vaasa.wartsila.infonet.com
>http://www.pcuf.fi/~tik
>'reality is for people, who cannot       ////
> cope with science fiction '            (o o)
> -------------------------------------o00=(_)=00o---
>

in SQR

   if isnull(ltrim(rtrim(substr($field,1 ,1 ),'1234567890'), '1234567890'))
      do numeric_stuff
   else
      do other_stuff
   end-if

or less good

   if substr($field,1,1) in ('1','2' ... etc
      do numeric_stuff
   else
      do other_stuff
   end-if

and probably lots of other ways.

Like your sig.

--------------------------------------------------------
 Andrew Barnett                 abarnett@isd.hih.com.au
 - Wizzard
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