Problems with rounding

From: <amerar_at_iwc.net>
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 19:49:17 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <af165a51-2652-453e-b194-3247e99c4f18@o42g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>

Hi Everyone,

I'm beginning to use external tables. I put some character data into the table,. It was a signed number, such as -123456.187. When I select the data using this select statement, it seems to round the data automatically. Why is this? I must be doing something wrong.........

Thanks in advance for your help.

ACTUAL DATA: -123456.187 SQL> select to_number(field1,'999999999.999') from art_ext;

TO_NUMBER(FIELD1,'999999999.999')

---

                       -1234567.2



CREATE TABLE art_ext (
   FIELD1     VARCHAR2(20))

Organization external
(type oracle_loader
default directory indata_directory
access parameters (records delimited by newline fields terminated by ',')
location ('art.txt'))
reject limit 1000; Received on Wed Nov 21 2007 - 21:49:17 CST