Oracle/PLSQL: To_Number Function

In Oracle/PLSQL, the to_number function converts a string to a number.

The syntax for the to_number function is:

to_number( string1, [ format_mask ], [ nls_language ] )

string1 is the string that will be converted to a number.

format_mask is optional. This is the format that will be used to convert string1 to a number.

nls_language is optional. This is the nls language used to convert string1 to a number.

Applies To:

Oracle 8i, Oracle 9i, Oracle 10g, Oracle 11g

For example:

to_number('1210.73', '9999.99') would return the number 1210.73

to_number('546', '999') would return the number 546

to_number('23', '99') would return the number 23

Since the format_mask and nls_language parameters are optional, you can simply convert a text string to a numeric value as follows:

to_number('1210.73'') would return the number 1210.73