Operand data type nvarchar is invalid for divide operator.

Question

When i am using the statement, SELECT location, date, total_cases, total_deaths, (total_deaths /total_cases) FROM CovidPortfolioProject..coviddeaths I'm getting the error Msg 8117, Level 16, State 1, Line 17 Operand data type nvarchar is invalid for divide operator.

Answer 1

Need to convert the data type. I hope this will solve your problem. @Sudarshan Sampath

---

Select Location, date, total_cases, total_deaths, (CONVERT(float, total_deaths) / NULLIF(CONVERT(float, total_cases), 0))*100 as DeathPercentage

From PortfolioProjects..CovidDeaths

order by 1,2

---

Answer 2

Hi @Sudarshan Sampath

The error message is already obvious. You need to check the character types of the total_deaths and total_cases.

You can take a look at the requirements for dividend and divisor in the official documentation.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/language-elements/divide-transact-sql?view=sql-server-ver16

Best regards,

Percy Tang

---

If the answer is the right solution, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Answer 3

Operand data type nvarchar is invalid for divide operator.

I think you get a pretty clear error message. You can apply math operation like a divison only on numeric data, not on string. You may have to convert first the strings to nuermic, but with that less on informations ... Please post table design as DDL, some sample data as DML statement and the expected result.

Answer 4

In your particular query, try using the Cast() function.

Answer 5

You need to converts a value to a float datatype

Select location, date, total_cases, total_deaths, (cast(total_deaths as float)/cast(total_cases as float))*100 as DeathPercentage

From CovidDeath

order by 1,2