To_char in version 10g and 11g

Question

I have a column (my_column) in a table (my_table) which holds the value as 2.8050000000000001598721155460225418210
When i perform the query as:
select REPLACE(TO_CHAR(my_column, '999990.999'),'.',',') column_val from my_table;
i get the result as ###########.
I get this result in the front end application also.
But when i actually provide the value in the select statement i get correct value as:
select REPLACE(TO_CHAR(2.8050000000000001598721155460225418210, '999990.999'),'.',',') column_val from my_table;
I get the result as 2,805.
The workaround for this issue is use trunc as below:
select REPLACE(TO_CHAR(trunc(my_column,4), '999990.999'),'.',',') column_val from my_table;
This happens in Oracle 11g version only.But in 10g version it works fine even without the trunc.
ANY IDEA WHY THIS HAPPENS.
Regards and Thanks

Answer 1

Hi,
792428 wrote:
I have a column (my_column) in a table (my_table) which holds the value as 2.8050000000000001598721155460225418210
When i perform the query as:
select REPLACE(TO_CHAR(my_column, '999990.999'),'.',',') column_val from my_table;
i get the result as ###########.
I get this result in the front end application also.I suspect you only get the error in a front end; the same regardless of whetehr the front end is SQL*Plus or your application.
That's exactly what SQL*Plus does when you give a character format for a NUMBER column:
COLUMN  deptno  FORMAT A10
SELECT  deptno
FROM    scott.dept;
    DEPTNO
##########but I don't know what would cause it when you are displaying a string.
As Brian said above, you can get the results you want directly from TO_CHAR. I think this is how you want to do it:
SELECT  TO_CHAR ( my_column
              , '999990.999'
          , 'NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS='',.'''
               AS column_val
FROM    my_table;