CAST
- Last Updated: May 12, 2026
- 1 minute read
- OpenAccess SDK
- Version 8.1
- Documentation
Syntax
CAST (value_exp AS data_type)
Description
This function returns the value specified by value_exp converted to the specified data_type, where data_type is one of the following keywords:
- BIGINT
- BINARY
- BIT
- CHAR
- DECIMAL
- DATE
- DOUBLE
- FLOAT
- INTEGER
- LONGVARBINARY
- LONGVARCHAR
- NUMERIC
- REAL
- SMALLINT
- TIME
- TIMESTAMP
- TINYINT
- VARBINARY
- VARCHAR
- WCHAR
- WVARCHAR
- WLONGVARCHAR
The following table defines the precision, length and scale of the resulting expression.
Length, precision, and scale keywords of the CAST function
| Keyword | Length | Precision | Scale |
| BIGINT | 8 | 20 | 0 |
| BINARY | 256 | 255 | 0 |
| BIT | 256 | 1 | 0 |
| CHAR | 1 | 255 | 0 |
| DATE | 6 | 10 | 0 |
| DOUBLE | 8 | 15 | 0 |
| FLOAT | 8 | 15 | 0 |
| INTEGER | 4 | 10 | 0 |
| LONGVARBINARY | 1000000 | 1000000 | 0 |
| LONGVARCHAR | 1000000 | 1000000 | 0 |
| NUMERIC | 32 | 34 | 5 |
| REAL | 2 | 7 | 0 |
| SMALLINT | 4 | 5 | 0 |
| TIME | 6 | 8 | 0 |
| TIMESTAMP | 16 | 0 | |
| TINYINT | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| VARBINARY | 1024 | 2048 | 0 |
| VARCHAR | 1024 | 2048 | 0 |
| WCHAR | 255 | 255 | 0 |
| WLONGVARCHAR | 2000000 | 1000000 | 0 |
| WVARCHAR | 2048 | 1024 | 0 |
Example
SELECT empno, CAST(empno AS VARCHAR) FROM emp
SELECT empno, CAST(empno AS SMALLINT) FROM emp