There are several Oracle functions that allow you to convert to a preset data type (TO_DATE, TO_CHAR, TO_NUMBER).

There’s also a function that allows you to specify the data type. This is the CAST function.

If, for some reason, you need to convert to a specific data type (and length or precision), you can use CAST. For example:

SELECT CAST(salary_request AS NUMBER(8)) FROM employee_feedback;

This will convert the salary_request column into a NUMBER(8) column.

You can do this with many different data types, so it’s a very useful function.