try_cast
function
Applies to: Databricks SQL Databricks Runtime 10.4 LTS and above
Returns the value of sourceExpr
cast to data type targetType
if possible, or NULL if not possible.
Syntax
try_cast(sourceExpr AS targetType)
Arguments
sourceExpr
: Any castable expression.targetType
: The type of the result.
Returns
The result is of type targetType
.
This function is a more relaxed variant of cast function which includes a detailed description.
try_cast
differs from cast function by tolerating the following conditions as long as the cast from the type of expr
to type
is supported:
- If a
sourceExpr
value cannot fit within the domain oftargetType
the result isNULL
instead of an overflow error. - If a
sourceExpr
value is not well formed or contains invalid characters the result isNULL
instead of an invalid data error.
Exception to the above are:
Examples
> SELECT try_cast('10' AS INT);
10
> SELECT try_cast('a' AS INT);
NULL