title: Convert NVARCHAR to MONEY or FLOAT format
body: <p>My problem: I have a table (imported from Excel to SQL Server 2008) which stores numbers in <code>NVARCHAR(255)</code> format. </p>
  
  <p>Trying to convert these columns to <code>FLOAT</code>, <code>MONEY</code>, <code>NUMERIC</code> failed with <code>CONVERT</code> or with <code>CAST</code> functions: </p>
  
  <pre><code>ORIGBAL   = CAST(ORIGBAL AS FLOAT)
  ORIGBAL   = CAST(ORIGBAL AS MONEY)
  ORIGBAL   = CAST(ORIGBAL AS MONEY)
  ORIGBAL   = CONVERT(decimal(12,2),ORIGBAL)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The message is in all cases (or similar fail error message):</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Error converting data type nvarchar to numeric.</p>
  </blockquote>