Error converting data type varchar

Question

I currently have a table with a column as varchar. This column can hold numbers or text. During certain queries I treat it as a bigint column (I do

Answer 1

Try doing the select in 2 stages.

first create a view that selects all columns where my col is nummeric.

Then do a select in that view where you cast the varchar field.

The other thing you could look at is your design of tables to remove the need for the cast.

EDIT

• Are some of the numbers larger than bigint?
• Are there any spaces, leading, trailing or in the number?
• Are there any format characters? Decimal points?