Type Conversion Functions

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This functionality is in technical preview and may be changed or removed in a future release. Elastic will work to fix any issues, but features in technical preview are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features.

Functions for converting an expression of one data type to another.

CAST

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Synopsis.

CAST(
    expression 
 AS data_type) 

Expression to cast

Target data type to cast to

DescriptionCasts the result of the given expression to the target data type. If the cast is not possible (for example because of target type is too narrow or because the value itself cannot be converted), the query fails.

SELECT CAST('123' AS INT) AS int;

      int
---------------
123
SELECT CAST(123 AS VARCHAR) AS string;

    string
---------------
123
SELECT YEAR(CAST('2018-05-19T11:23:45Z' AS TIMESTAMP)) AS year;

     year
---------------
2018

CONVERT

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Synopsis.

CONVERT(
    expression, 
    data_type)  

Expression to convert

Target data type to convert to

DescriptionWorks exactly like CAST with slightly different syntax. Moreover, apart from the standard data types it supports the corresponding ODBC data types.

SELECT CONVERT('123', SQL_INTEGER) AS int;

      int
---------------
123
SELECT CONVERT('123', INTEGER) AS int;

      int
---------------
123