I'm trying to take a varchar field and convert it to
numeric/decimal/float (not sure which is the best data type). I keep
receiving an error on the conversion:

Server: Msg 8114, Level 16, State 5, Line 4
Error converting data type varchar to numeric.

This is the code I tried to use but seems to be problematic:

case when ltrim(rtrim(ltv)) <> ''
then cast(ltv as numeric(21,20))
else NULL end as ltv,

The data in the field I believe to be the issue looks like this:

5.9499999999999997E-2

It seems to be a problem with converting the scientific notation, but I
don't know how to handle that. Any ideas?

convert to float first

doesn't work
select convert(numeric(21,20),'5.9499999999999997E-2')

works
select convert(numeric(21,20),convert(float,'5.9499999999 999997E-2'))

http://sqlservercode.blogspot.com/

convert to float first

doesn't work
select convert(numeric(21,20),'5.9499999999999997E-2')

works
select convert(numeric(21,20),convert(float,'5.9499999999 999997E-2'))

http://sqlservercode.blogspot.com/

Great, thanks! That definitely has solved my problem. I appreciate
the help.