check if “it's a number” function in Oracle

Question

I\'m trying to check if a value from a column in an oracle (10g) query is a number in order to compare it. Something like:

select case when ( is_number(myTab         


        

Answer 1

Saish's answer using REGEXP_LIKE is the right idea but does not support floating numbers. This one will ...

Return values that are numeric

SELECT  foo 
FROM    bar
WHERE   REGEXP_LIKE (foo,'^-?\d+(\.\d+)?$');

Return values not numeric

SELECT  foo 
FROM    bar
WHERE   NOT REGEXP_LIKE (foo,'^-?\d+(\.\d+)?$');

You can test your regular expressions themselves till your heart is content at http://regexpal.com/ (but make sure you select the checkbox match at line breaks for this one).