CAST¶

THE CAST operator converts an input from one type to another. In many cases casts are created implicitly, but this operator can be used to force a type conversion.

The following casts are currently supported. Please refer to supported_dataframe_data_types for the Python types for each type keyword:

From	To	Notes
`VARCHAR`	`VARCHAR`
`VARCHAR`	`TINYINT/SMALLINT/INTEGER/BIGINT`
`VARCHAR`	`FLOAT/DOUBLE`
`VARCHAR`	`DECIMAL`	Equivalent to `DOUBLE`. This may change in the future.
`VARCHAR`	`TIMESTAMP`
`VARCHAR`	`DATE`	Truncates to date but is still Timestamp type. This may change in the future.
`TINYINT/SMALLINT/INTEGER/BIGINT`	`VARCHAR`
`TINYINT/SMALLINT/INTEGER/BIGINT`	`TINYINT/SMALLINT/INTEGER/BIGINT`
`TINYINT/SMALLINT/INTEGER/BIGINT`	`FLOAT/DOUBLE`
`TINYINT/SMALLINT/INTEGER/BIGINT`	`DECIMAL`	Equivalent to `DOUBLE`. This may change in the future.
`TINYINT/SMALLINT/INTEGER/BIGINT`	`TIMESTAMP`
`FLOAT/DOUBLE`	`VARCHAR`
`FLOAT/DOUBLE`	`TINYINT/SMALLINT/INTEGER/BIGINT`
`FLOAT/DOUBLE`	`FLOAT/DOUBLE`
`FLOAT/DOUBLE`	`DECIMAL`	Equivalent to `DOUBLE`. This may change in the future
`TIMESTAMP`	`VARCHAR`
`TIMESTAMP`	`TINYINT/SMALLINT/INTEGER/BIGINT`
`TIMESTAMP`	`TIMESTAMP`
`TIMESTAMP`	`DATE`	Truncates to date but is still Timestamp type. This may change in the future.

Note

CAST correctness can often not be determined at compile time. Users are responsible for ensuring that conversion is possible (e.g. CAST(str_col as INTEGER)).