The TO_BINARY_FLOAT function returns a 32-bit single-precision floating-point number.
Syntax
TO_BINARY_FLOAT(expr [, fmt [, 'nlsparam' ] ])
Parameters
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| expr | The string or the numeric data type: NUMBER, BINARY_FLOAT, or BINARY_DOUBLE. |
The optional parameters fmt and nlsparam are valid only if expr is a string. They serve the same purpose as the TO_CHAR(number) feature. If expr is BINARY_FLOAT, the function returns expr.
Return type
A 32-bit single-precision floating-point number is returned. The result of converting a string or NUMBER to BINARY_FLOAT may be inexact. This is because NUMBER and character types use decimal precision to represent numeric values, but BINARY_FLOAT uses binary precision. If a BINARY_DOUBLE value uses higher precision than the precision that is supported by BINARY_FLOAT, the result of converting BINARY_DOUBLE to BINARY_FLOAT is inexact.
Examples
Execute the following statement:
SELECT TO_BINARY_FLOAT(1222.111) from dual;
The following query result is returned:
+---------------------------+
| TO_BINARY_FLOAT(1222.111) |
+---------------------------+
| 1.22211096E+003 |
+---------------------------+