The general conversion function, convert, converts between a variety of datatypes and specifies a new display format for date and time information. Its syntax is:
convert(datatype, expression [, style] )
Here is an example that uses convert in the select list:
select title, convert(char(5), total_sales) from titles where type = "trad_cook"
title
------------------------------------ -----
Onions, Leeks, and Garlic: Cooking
Secrets of the Mediterranean 375
Fifty Years in Buckingham Palace
Kitchens 15096
Sushi, Anyone? 4095
(3 rows affected)
In the following example, the total_sales column, an int column, is converted to a char(5) column so that it can be used with the like keyword:
select title, total_sales
from titles
where convert(char(5), total_sales) like "15%"
and type = "trad_cook"
title
--------------------------------- -----
Fifty Years in Buckingham Palace
Kitchens 15096
(1 row affected)
Certain datatypes expect either a length or a precision and scale. If you do not specify a length, Adaptive Server uses the default length of 30 for character and binary data. If you do not specify a precision or scale, Adaptive Server uses the defaults of 18 and 0, respectively.
