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

I'm against using when others so I would use (returning an "boolean integer" due to SQL not suppporting booleans)

create or replace function is_number(param in varchar2) return integer
 is
   ret number;
 begin
    ret := to_number(param);
    return 1; --true
 exception
    when invalid_number then return 0;
 end;

In the SQL call you would use something like

select case when ( is_number(myTable.id)=1 and (myTable.id >'0') ) 
            then 'Is a number greater than 0' 
            else 'it is not a number or is not greater than 0' 
       end as valuetype  
  from table myTable