Categories:: Semi-structured and structured data functions (Cast)

AS_CHAR , AS_VARCHAR¶

Casts a VARIANT value to a string. Does not convert values of other types into string.

The AS_CHAR and AS_VARCHAR functions are synonymous.

See also:: AS_<object_type>

Syntax¶

AS_CHAR( <variant_expr> )

AS_VARCHAR( <variant_expr> )

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Arguments¶

variant_expr: An expression that evaluates to a value of type VARIANT.

Examples¶

This shows how to use the function:

Create a table and data:

CREATE TABLE multiple_types (
    array1 VARIANT,
    array2 VARIANT,
    boolean1 VARIANT,
    char1 VARIANT,
    varchar1 VARIANT,
    decimal1 VARIANT,
    double1 VARIANT,
    integer1 VARIANT,
    object1 VARIANT
    );
INSERT INTO multiple_types 
     (array1, array2, boolean1, char1, varchar1, 
      decimal1, double1, integer1, object1)
   SELECT 
     TO_VARIANT(TO_ARRAY('Example')), 
     TO_VARIANT(ARRAY_CONSTRUCT('Array-like', 'example')), 
     TO_VARIANT(TRUE), 
     TO_VARIANT('X'), 
     TO_VARIANT('I am a real character'), 
     TO_VARIANT(1.23::DECIMAL(6, 3)),
     TO_VARIANT(3.21::DOUBLE),
     TO_VARIANT(15),
     TO_VARIANT(TO_OBJECT(PARSE_JSON('{"Tree": "Pine"}')))
     ;

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Now run the query:

SELECT 
       AS_ARRAY(array1) AS "ARRAY1",
       AS_ARRAY(array2) AS "ARRAY2",
       AS_BOOLEAN(boolean1) AS "BOOLEAN",
       AS_CHAR(char1) AS "CHAR",
       AS_DECIMAL(decimal1, 6, 3) AS "DECIMAL",
       AS_DOUBLE(double1) AS "DOUBLE",
       AS_INTEGER(integer1) AS "INTEGER",
       AS_OBJECT(object1) AS "OBJECT",
       AS_ARRAY(object1) AS "OBJECT AS ARRAY"
  FROM multiple_types;
+-------------+-----------------+---------+------+---------+--------+---------+------------------+-----------------+
| ARRAY1      | ARRAY2          | BOOLEAN | CHAR | DECIMAL | DOUBLE | INTEGER | OBJECT           | OBJECT AS ARRAY |
|-------------+-----------------+---------+------+---------+--------+---------+------------------+-----------------|
| [           | [               | True    | X    |   1.230 |   3.21 |      15 | {                | NULL            |
|   "Example" |   "Array-like", |         |      |         |        |         |   "Tree": "Pine" |                 |
| ]           |   "example"     |         |      |         |        |         | }                |                 |
|             | ]               |         |      |         |        |         |                  |                 |
+-------------+-----------------+---------+------+---------+--------+---------+------------------+-----------------+

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