CAST()

Takes a value of one type and converts it to the value of another of type. See CONVERT.

See also: Functions in 10.6 ES, in 10.6 CS, in 10.5 ES, in 10.5 CS, in 10.4 ES, in 10.4 CS, in 10.3 ES, in 10.3 CS, in 10.2 ES, and in 10.2 CS

EXAMPLES

CREATE TABLE cast_example (
  example VARCHAR(32)
);

INSERT INTO cast_example VALUES
  ('apple '), ('Apricot  '), ('berry'),
  ('Cheese   '), ('Dairy  '), ('eggs ');

Notice that casing a VARCHAR to a CHAR does not auto-remove the trailing spaces (since the space removal only happens when a value is retrieved from a field):

SELECT example, LENGTH(example), LENGTH(CAST(example AS CHAR))
FROM cast_example ORDER BY example;

+-----------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
| example   | LENGTH(example) | LENGTH(CAST(example AS CHAR)) |
+-----------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
| apple     |               6 |                             6 |
| Apricot   |               9 |                             9 |
| berry     |               5 |                             5 |
| Cheese    |               9 |                             9 |
| Dairy     |               7 |                             7 |
| eggs      |               5 |                             5 |
+-----------+-----------------+-------------------------------+

You can make case significant in a sort by casting to a BINARY type:

SELECT * FROM cast_example ORDER BY CAST(example AS BINARY);

+-----------+
| example   |
+-----------+
| Apricot   |
| Cheese    |
| Dairy     |
| apple     |
| berry     |
| eggs      |
+-----------+

CREATE TABLE timezone (t TIMESTAMP);

INSERT INTO timezone VALUES ('2020-10-13T23:23:28');

SELECT CAST(t AS DATETIME) FROM timezone;

+---------------------+
| CAST(t AS DATETIME) |
+---------------------+
| 2020-10-13 23:23:28 |
+---------------------+

CHANGE HISTORY

Release Series

History

10.6 Enterprise

  • Present starting in MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.6.4-1.

10.6 Community

  • Present starting in MariaDB Community Server 10.6.0.

10.5 Enterprise

  • Present starting in MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.5.3-1.

10.5 Community

  • Present starting in MariaDB Community Server 10.5.0.

10.4 Enterprise

  • Present starting in MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.4.6-1.

10.4 Community

  • Present starting in MariaDB Community Server 10.4.0.

10.3 Enterprise

  • Present starting in MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.3.16-1.

10.3 Community

  • Present starting in MariaDB Community Server 10.3.0.

10.2 Enterprise

  • Present starting in MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.2.25-1.

10.2 Community

  • Present starting in MariaDB Community Server 10.2.0.

EXTERNAL REFERENCES