How To Convert Characters to Dates?

by **Micheal** Sat Jan 16, 2010 9:20 pm

You can convert dates to characters using the TO_DATE() function as shown in the following
examples:
SELECT TO_DATE('07-MAY-2006', 'DD-MON-YYYY') FROM DUAL;
07-MAY-06
SELECT TO_DATE('2006/05/07 ', 'YYYY/MM/DD') FROM DUAL;
07-MAY-06
SELECT TO_DATE('MAY 07, 2006', 'MONTH DD, YYYY') FROM DUAL;
07-MAY-06
SELECT TO_DATE('May 7, 2006', 'fmMONTH DD, YYYY') FROM DUAL;
07-MAY-06
SELECT TO_DATE('SUNDAY, MAY 7, 2006', 'fmDAY, MONTH DD, YYYY') FROM DUAL;
07-MAY-06
How To Convert Times to Characters?
You can convert dates to characters using the TO_CHAR() function as shown in the following
examples:
SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'HH:MI:SS') FROM DUAL;
04:49:49
SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'HH24:MI:SS.FF') FROM DUAL;
-- Error: SYSDATE has no fractional seconds
SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSTIMESTAMP, 'HH24:MI:SS.FF9') FROM DUAL;
16:52:57.847000000
SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'SSSSS') FROM DUAL;
-- Seconds past midnight
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