converting a fraction to a decimal

select O.ord_limit, to_number(decode(instr(O.ord_limit, '-'), 0, O.ord_limit, substr(O.ord_limit, 1, instr(O.ord_limit, '-') - 1))||
(substr(O.ord_limit, instr(O.ord_limit, '-') + 1, instr(O.ord_limit,
'/') - instr(O.ord_limit, '-') - 1))/
(substr(O.ord_limit, instr(O.ord_limit, '/') + 1))) --,
instr(O.ord_limit, '/') - instr(O.ord_limit, '-') - 1)) from orders o;

where orders table is key int , ord_limit char 10

and the value to convert is (ord_limit) 16-3/4

does anyone have an easier way to do this? Received on Tue Mar 19 2002 - 22:34:08 CET