TO_SINGLE_BYTE

Purpose

This function converts all multibyte characters to their corresponding single-byte characters. This function is effective only when your database character set contains both single-byte and multibyte characters.

Syntax

TO_SINGLE_BYTE(char)

Parameters

The char data type can be CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2. If any multibyte character in char has no single-byte equivalent, the output string displays the character as a multibyte character.

Return type

The return value is of the same data type as char.

Examples

• Converts each multi-byte B value from the UTF-8 character set to the corresponding single-byte B value in the ASCII character set.

  obclient> SELECT TO_SINGLE_BYTE(CHR(15711394)) FROM DUAL;
  +-------------------------------+
  | TO_SINGLE_BYTE(CHR(15711394)) |
  +-------------------------------+
  | B                             |
  +-------------------------------+
  1 row in set
  

• Converts full-width characters to half-width characters in a string.

  obclient> SELECT TO_SINGLE_BYTE('China A') text FROM DUAL;
  +---------+
  | TEXT    |
  +---------+
  | China A |
  +---------+
  1 row in set