What is the function of the SQL FORMAT function?

The FORMAT function in SQL is used to convert numerical, date, and time values into a specified string format. It can transform numerical values into strings based on a specified format template for better presentation to users.

The syntax of the FORMAT function is as follows:

Converts a value into a specified format.

value is the numerical or date/time value to be formatted, and format is the template to be applied.

For example, assume there is a numerical column called “amount” storing some monetary data, and we want to display these amounts in currency format. This can be achieved by using the FORMAT function as shown below:

Get the amount formatted as currency from the table.

This will return a new column named formatted_amount, which contains the amount value displayed in currency format.

In addition to currency format, the FORMAT function also supports various other formatting options such as percentage format, scientific notation format, date format, etc. By selecting the appropriate format template, numeric and date/time values can be formatted into the desired string format according to the requirements.