ACOS
Alphabetical Listing of SQL Functions
ABS
Syntax abs::=
ABS 
( 
n 
)
Purpose
ABS returns the absolute value of n.
Examples
The following example returns the absolute value of -15:
SELECT ABS(-15) "Absolute" FROM DUAL;
Absolute
----------
15
ACOS
Syntax acos::=
ACOS 
( 
n 
)
Purpose
ACOS returns the arc cosine of n. The argument n must be in the range of -1 to 1, and the function returns values in the range of 0 to π, expressed in radians.
Examples
The following example returns the arc cosine of .3:
SELECT ACOS(.3)"Arc_Cosine" FROM DUAL;
Functions 6-17
ADD_MONTHS
Arc_Cosine
----------
1.26610367
ADD_MONTHS
Syntax add_months::=
ADD_MONTHS 
( 
d 
, 
n 
)
Purpose
ADD_MONTHS returns the date d plus n months. The argument n can be any integer. If d is the last day of the month or if the resulting month has fewer days than the day component of d, then the result is the last day of the resulting month. Otherwise, the result has the same day component as d.
Examples
The following example returns the month after the hire_date in the sample table employees:
SELECT TO_CHAR( ADD_MONTHS(hire_date,1), ’DD-MON-YYYY’) "Next month" FROM employees
WHERE last_name = ’Baer’;
Next Month
-----------
07-JUL-1994
ASCII
Syntax ascii::=
ASCII 
( 
char 
)
6-18 Oracle9i SQL Reference
ASCIISTR
Purpose
ASCII returns the decimal representation in the database character set of the first character of char.
char can be of datatype CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2. The value returned is of datatype NUMBER. If your database character set is 7-bit ASCII, then this function returns an ASCII value. If your database character set is EBCDIC Code, then this function returns an EBCDIC value. There is no corresponding EBCDIC character function.
Note: This function does not support CLOB data directly. However, CLOBs can be passed in as arguments through implicit data conversion. Please refer to "Datatype Comparison Rules" on page 2-45 for more information.
Examples
The following example returns the ASCII decimal equivalent of the letter Q:
SELECT ASCII(’Q’) FROM DUAL;
ASCII(’Q’)
----------
81
ASCIISTR
Syntax asciistr::=
ASCIISTR 
( 
’ 
string 
’ 
)
Purpose
ASCIISTR takes as its argument a string in any character set and returns an ASCII string in the database character set. The value returned contains only characters that appear in SQL, plus the forward slash (/). Non-ASCII characters are converted to their Unicode (UTF-16) binary code value.
Functions 6-19
ASIN
See Also: Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide for information on Unicode character sets and character semantics
Examples
The following example returns the ASCII string equivalent of the text string "ABÄCDE":
SELECT ASCIISTR(’ABÄCDE’) FROM DUAL;
ASCIIS
------
ABDCDE
ASIN
Syntax asin::=
ASIN 
( 
n 
)
Purpose
ASIN returns the arc sine of n. The argument n must be in the range of -1 to 1, and the function returns values in the range of -π/2 to π/2 and are expressed in radians.
Examples
The following example returns the arc sine of .3:
SELECT ASIN(.3) "Arc_Sine" FROM DUAL;
Arc_Sine
----------
.304692654
6-20 Oracle9i SQL Reference