Select max int from varchar column

Question

I am trying to retrieve the largest number from a varchar column that includes both numbers and strings. An example of the data I\'m working with:

BoxNumber

Answer 1

The selected answer worked for me until I added this value to the temp table along with the others in the sample:

insert #bla values('1234')

I expected my max() result to now be 1234, but it remained at 789. Perhaps this is due to some collation setting, but I was able to reproduce on multiple databases. I found this query below worked for me, but I'd certainly be interested to hear if there is a more efficient way of doing this. Also, I did not want to include any decimal values, so I excluded anything with a period as well.

SELECT MAX(CAST(Value AS Int)) FROM #bla 
WHERE ISNUMERIC(Value)=1 
    AND Value NOT LIKE '%[a-z]%' 
    AND Value NOT LIKE '%.%'