> The problem is this:
>
> Take the diameter of an old metal swimming pool I had in the 1970's

18 feet, now I

> want the circumference in metres.
>
> 'Calc = ' || '18' * .3048 * '3.14' the output variable is a VARCHAR

(20)

>
> what it really needs to do is convert the 18 to a double and the

3.14 to a double, do

> the math and cast the result to a string, concatenate that to any

strings and sanity

> check the result for length. In this case the result would be Calc

= 17.227296 at

> least according to my Canon F-502 calculator.

Do not want to comment your statement about IB, but the right
statement would be:

'Calc = ' || ('18' * .3048 * '3.14')

at leaset this works:

select 'Calc = ' || ('18' * .3048 * '3.14') from rdb$database

Usually statements are evaluated from left to right, and there is not
precedence between * and || operators.

Best regards,
Roman Rokytskyy