Question

I have a MYSQL database with Negative numbers that are enclosed in parenthesis
eg. (14,500) which is supposed to be -14500.

I am storing the numbers as varchar. I am trying to convert all the numbers to a double or float format and also format the negative numbers with a minus sign.
My code:

select case 
   when substr(gross_d,1,1) = '(' then
       ltrim('(') and rtrim(')') *-1
   else 
      (gross_d)
   end gross_d_num
from buy;
convert(gross_d_num,Double);

The problem with my current method is all the negative numbers with the parenthesis are converted to zero. Is there a different method to get my result.

edit:

I also removed the *-1 to see if the Parenthesis is removed and I get a value of zero.

Answer 1

Something like

convert (
    case 
       when gross_d LIKE '(%)' THEN CONCAT('-', REPLACE(REPLACE(gross_d, ')', ''), '(', ''))
       else gross_d
    end, decimal(19,6))

Here, you are trimming parenthesis only. This becomes zero when you multiply by -1

ltrim('(') and rtrim(')') *-1