sql - TSQL - Cast string to integer or return default value

Question

Is there a way in T-SQL to cast an nvarchar to int and return a default value or NULL if the conversion fails?

Answer 1

Yes :). Try this:

DECLARE @text AS NVARCHAR(10)

SET @text = '100'
SELECT CASE WHEN ISNUMERIC(@text) = 1 THEN CAST(@text AS INT) ELSE NULL END
-- returns 100

SET @text = 'XXX'
SELECT CASE WHEN ISNUMERIC(@text) = 1 THEN CAST(@text AS INT) ELSE NULL END
-- returns NULL

ISNUMERIC() has a few issues pointed by Fedor Hajdu.

It returns true for strings like $ (is currency), , or . (both are separators), + and -.