Testing for non-Numeric Data in a varchar2

Question

Hello -
What is the easiest way to test see if there is non-numeric data in a varchar2 column? The column holds ssn values, but I am unable to convert these values to numeric data, because somewhere the column is storing non-numeric data.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Maybe something like this ?
SQL> create or replace function test_num (var1 in varchar2) return varchar2
  2  is
  3     num     number;
  4  begin
  5     num := to_number (var1);
  6     return ('Number');
  7  exception
  8     when others then
  9             return ('Character');
10* end;
SQL> /
Function created.
SQL> select test_num ('111') from dual;
TEST_NUM('111')
Number
SQL> select test_num ('aaa') from dual;
TEST_NUM('AAA')
Character
SQL>