[!INCLUDE sql-asdb-asdbmi-asa-fabricse-fabricdw-fabricsqldb]

Returns the result of an expression, translated to the requested data type, or NULL if the cast fails in [!INCLUDE ssNoVersion]. Use TRY_PARSE only for converting from string to date/time and number types.

:::image type="icon" source="../../includes/media/topic-link-icon.svg" border="false"::: Transact-SQL syntax conventions

TRY_PARSE ( string_value AS data_type [ USING culture ] )

nvarchar(4000) value representing the formatted value to parse into the specified data type.

string_value must be a valid representation of the requested data type, or TRY_PARSE returns null.

Literal representing the data type requested for the result.

Optional string that identifies the culture in which string_value is formatted.

If the culture argument isn't provided, the language of the current session is used. This language is set either implicitly or explicitly by using the SET LANGUAGE statement. culture accepts any culture supported by the .NET Framework. It isn't limited to the languages explicitly supported by [!INCLUDE ssNoVersion]. If the culture argument isn't valid, PARSE raises an error.

Returns the result of the expression, translated to the requested data type, or NULL if the cast fails.

Use TRY_PARSE only for converting from string to date/time and number types. For general type conversions, continue to use CAST or CONVERT. Keep in mind that there's a certain performance overhead in parsing the string value.

TRY_PARSE relies on the presence of the .NET Framework common language runtime (CLR).

This function can't be remoted since it depends on the presence of the CLR. Remoting a function that requires the CLR would cause an error on the remote server.

The values for the data_type parameter are restricted to the types shown in the following table, together with styles. The style information is provided to help determine what types of patterns are allowed. For more information on styles, see the .NET Framework documentation for the System.Globalization.NumberStyles and DateTimeStyles enumerations.

The following table shows the mappings from [!INCLUDE ssNoVersion] languages to .NET Framework cultures.

SELECT TRY_PARSE ('Jabberwokkie' AS DATETIME2 USING 'en-US') AS Result;

This query returns a result of NULL.

SELECT
CASE WHEN TRY_PARSE ('Aragorn' AS DECIMAL USING 'sr-Latn-CS') IS NULL
     THEN 'True'
     ELSE 'False'
END AS Result;

This query returns a result of True.

SET LANGUAGE English;

SELECT IIF (TRY_PARSE ('01/01/2011' AS DATETIME2) IS NULL, 'True', 'False') AS Result;

This query returns a result of False.

• PARSE (Transact-SQL)
• Conversion functions (Transact-SQL)
• TRY_CONVERT (Transact-SQL)
• CAST and CONVERT (Transact-SQL)