Question

This question is almost the same with one of my previous questions, which can be found HERE

I have a field named: pa_value which keeps varchar records
Now this field contains records like:

 0,5582
 0,6985
 -0,1589
 0,9856
 -0,6589

I’m getting these results using the following code:

CAST (replace (p7.pa_value ,'%','') AS float (3,0)) as TotalMargin

What I’m trying to do is to remove everything and leave just 5 characters(or 6 if there is a -(minus) infront of the string).
It should be looking like this:

 55.82
 69.85
 -15.89
 98.56
 -65.89

I tried to cast it as a float and then to convert it to integer. I also tried the floor command, which is not for my case, without any success. I’m always getting a syntax error message. I believe that there is no way to do this

Answer 1

SELECT p7.pa_value=CASE WHEN LEFT( p7.pa_value,1)='-' THEN '-' + 
           CONVERT(varchar(max),CONVERT(float,substring(p7.pa_value,4,4))/100) ELSE 
           CONVERT(varchar(max),CONVERT(float,substring(p7.pa_value,3,4))/100)  END
FROM <table_name>

What is being done ..

• Check if starting character is ‘-‘.
• If yes then extract string starting from position 4 else starting
  from position 3.
• The inner convert function converts string to float for division and
  the outer convert changes back the resultant value back to varchar
  type.