Did you try CAST(... AS DECIMAL(9,0))?
>In MySQL Cast can be one of the following types:
>Binary
>Char
>Date
>Datetime
>Decimal
>Signed integer
>Time
>Unsigned integer
>
>I have tried it before, but if I use signed or unsigned integer, it creates a character result. But now that you mention it I checked and using Decimal does result in a numeric output. I never thought of using Decimal, have to check what they mean with that. Strangely enough, it always displays two decimal points, but for my calculations that will work.
--sb--