Convert a NUMERIC Data Column to VARCHAR when it is Null

Question

So I have a NUMERIC field and if it is NULL I want to actually pass back the value '<NULL>'. This is for a user with a before and after image of data columns.

I tried ISNULL with CONVERT but I cannot seem to get the syntax down.

Can anyone please help me out with the syntax?

Thanks for your review and am hopeful for a reply.

Answer 1

Hi @Bobby P

I tried ISNULL with CONVERT but I cannot seem to get the syntax down.

When converting from Numeric to Varchar without specify the length,an error will return when the result length is too long to display.
Did you try ISNULL(CONVERT(VARCHAR(50),NUMERIC_Field),'<NULL>') ? If it doesn't work, try replacing '50' with 'max'.

Best regards,
LiHong

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Answer 2

Just to be clear.

A SELECT statement cannot return 2 different data types for the same column. Every record must conform to the same data type for the column. It is either NUMERIC or VARCHAR, it cannot be sometimes VARCHAR.