Converts the value in <Decimal> or all characters in <String> to data type Integer. All decimals have fractional portions truncated during the conversion. Strings are converted ONLY if all characters in <String> are numeric, without a decimal point. If any non-numeric characters (with the sole exception of a single leading minus sign for negative numbers) are present in <String>, no value is returned by the function. Do not use on String values of null or empty String ( '' ) -- a pair of single quote marks -- as this will generate an error message.