CAST()
This page is part of MariaDB's Documentation.
The parent of this page is: Functions for MariaDB Enterprise Server
Topics on this page:
Overview
Takes a value of one type and converts it to the value of another of type. See CONVERT.
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
EXTERNAL REFERENCES
Additional information on this topic may be found in the MariaDB Public Knowledge Base.