title: How to convert character column to numeric in SQL?
body: <p>Example of values in the column are:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$3,459.09
  $98.00
  $6,789,123.15
  $5,435.00
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I can remove the dollar sign by using a substring, but I am not able to find a way to convert character to numeric.</p>
  
  <p>I tried a couple of options
  1. <code>to_number(billed_amount) end as paid_amount_value</code>
  2. <code>cast ( billed_amount as  INT) as paid_amount_value</code></p>
  
  <p>Error:
  for 1st: </p>
  
  <pre><code>ORA-01722: invalid number
  01722. 00000 -  "invalid number"
  *Cause:    The specified number was invalid.
  *Action:   Specify a valid number.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>for2nd: </p>
  
  <pre><code>ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected NUMBER got CHAR
  00932. 00000 -  "inconsistent datatypes: expected %s got %s"
  </code></pre>