Re: numeric check

Ubiquitous (weberm_at_polaris.net) wrote:
: chrisval_at_gmail.com wrote:
: >Malcolm Dew-Jones wrote:

: >> -- untested
: >> function is_a_number( s varchar2)
: >> return number
: >> is
: >> begin
: >> return to_number(s);
: >> exception
: >> -- This should check just the expected error
: >> -- but I haven't bothered to look it up.
: >> when others then
: >> return NULL;
: > end is_a_number;
: >
: >What you're looking for is: "INVALID_NUMBER"

: I thinkthis throws a VALUE_ERROR exception. What's the difference?

: Not to be pedantic, but shouldn't this function return a BOOLEAN
: instead of a NUMBER,

Yes, based on the name of the function, but I assume if you want the number then you want the number, so I return the number.

The solution would be to change the name, not the function, perhaps "validated_number", or such like, but good names are hard, so I didn't try to find one. Received on Mon Apr 24 2006 - 15:03:03 CDT