Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

The TRY_PARSE Function

Like PARSE, the TRY_PARSE function can be used to convert any string value to a numeric or to a date and time format if SQL Server cannot convert the passed value to numeric or to a date and time format, it will return a NULL value rather than raising an error, as shown in Listing 44.5. In this example, you see how PARSE raises an error trying to convert the value 'CA' to an int and that no result set is returned, whereas TRY_CONVERT returns a result set with a value of NULL returned instead of raising an error.

LISTING 44.5 Comparison of PARSE and TRY_PARSE Behavior

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SELECT  StateProvinceID ,StateProvinceCode ,PARSE(StateProvinceCode AS INT) AS [Using PARSE Function]FROM Person.StateProvince ...