In Oracle, the ASIN() function returns the arcsine (inverse sine) of its argument.

In other words, it returns the value whose sine is the argument.

Syntax

The syntax goes like this:

ASIN(n)

Where n is a valid expression that resolves to a number between -1 and 1.

Example

Here’s an example:

SELECT ASIN(0.7130)
FROM DUAL;

Result:

                                 ASIN(0.7130) 
_____________________________________________ 
   0.7937675542241276685031867479973723291388

Out of Range Argument

The argument must be between -1 and 1. If it’s outside of that range, an error is returned.

Example:

SELECT ASIN(2)
FROM DUAL;

Result:

Error starting at line : 1 in command -
SELECT ASIN(2)
FROM DUAL
Error report -
ORA-01428: argument '2' is out of range

Non-Numeric Argument

The argument can be any numeric data type or any nonnumeric data type that can be implicitly converted to a numeric data type.

Here’s what happens when we provide a non-numeric argument that can’t be converted to a numeric data type:

SELECT ASIN('One')
FROM DUAL;

Result:

Error starting at line : 1 in command -
SELECT ASIN('One')
FROM DUAL
Error report -
ORA-01722: invalid number

Null Values

Passing null to ASIN() returns null:

SET NULL 'null';

SELECT ASIN(null)
FROM DUAL;

Result:

   ASIN(NULL) 
_____________ 
         null

By default, SQLcl and SQL*Plus return a blank space whenever null occurs as a result of a SQL SELECT statement.

However, you can use SET NULL to specify a different string to be returned. Here I specified that the string null should be returned.

Incorrect Argument Count

Calling ASIN() without passing any arguments returns an error:

SELECT ASIN()
FROM DUAL;

Result:

Error starting at line : 1 in command -
SELECT ASIN()
FROM DUAL
Error at Command Line : 1 Column : 8
Error report -
SQL Error: ORA-00909: invalid number of arguments
00909. 00000 -  "invalid number of arguments"
*Cause:    
*Action:

And passing the wrong number of arguments results in an error:

SELECT ASIN(1, 2)
FROM DUAL;

Result:

Error starting at line : 1 in command -
SELECT ASIN(1, 2)
FROM DUAL
Error at Command Line : 1 Column : 8
Error report -
SQL Error: ORA-00909: invalid number of arguments
00909. 00000 -  "invalid number of arguments"
*Cause:    
*Action: