title: Why can't I convert this varchar to numeric?
body: <p>I have a table with values pasted in, but they initially start as varchar. I need to convert them to numeric, so I did</p>
  
  <pre><code>convert(decimal(10,3), cw.col7)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But this is returning <code>Error 8114: Error converting data type varchar to numeric</code>. The reason I made this question is because it does not give this error for a similar data set. Are there sometimes strange anomalies when using <code>convert()</code> or <code>decimal()</code>? Or should I maybe convert to float first? </p>
  
  <p><strong>The data:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>col7
  
  490.440 
  2 
  934 
  28,108.000 
  33,226.000 
  17,347.000 
  1,561.000 
  57 
  0 
  421.350 
  64 
  1,100.000 
  0 
  0 
  3,584 
  202.432 
  0 
  3,280 
  672.109 
  1,150 
  0 
  104 
  411.032 
  18,016 
  40 
  510,648 
  443,934.000 
  18,705 
  322,254 
  301 
  9,217 
  18,075 
  16,100 
  395 
  706,269 
  418,313 
  7,170 
  40,450 
  2,423 
  1,300 
  2,311 
  94,000.000 
  17,463 
  0 
  228 
  884 
  557 
  153 
  13 
  0 
  0 
  212.878 
  45,000.000 
  152 
  24,400 
  3,675 
  11,750 
  987 
  23,725 
  268,071 
  4,520.835 
  286,000 
  112,912.480 
  9,000 
  1,316 
  1,020 
  215,244 
  123,967 
  6,911 
  1,088.750 
  138,644 
  16,924 
  7,848 
  33,017 
  464,463 
  618 
  72,391 
  9,367 
  507,635.950 
  588,087 
  92,890 
  17,266 
  0 
  1,414,547 
  89,080 
  664 
  101,635 
  1,552,992 
  175 
  356 
  7,000 
  0 
  0 
  445 
  507,381 
  24,016 
  469,983 
  0 
  0 
  147,737 
  3,521 
  88,210 
  18,433.000 
  21,775 
  3,607 
  34,774 
  7,642 
  42,680 
  1,255 
  10,880 
  350,409.800 
  19,394.520 
  2,476,257.400 
  778.480 
  1,670.440 
  9,710 
  24,931.600 
  3,381.800 
  2,900 
  18,000 
  4,121 
  3,750 
  62,200 
  952 
  29.935 
  17.795 
  11.940 
  902 
  36,303 
  1,240 
  1,020 
  617 
  817 
  620 
  92,648 
  70,925 
  82,924 
  19,162.200 
  1,213.720 
  2,871 
  3,180 
  91,600 
  645 
  607 
  155,100 
  6 
  840 
  1,395 
  112 
  6,721 
  3,850 
  40 
  4,032 
  5,912 
  1,040 
  872 
  56 
  1,856 
  179 
  </code></pre>