Re: to_date problem

On Thu, Mar 15, 2001 at 08:37:26AM +0100, leif(at)danmos(dot)dk wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I have just observed the following problem:
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> testdb=# select to_date('2001-3-5 10:00', 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI') from dual;
> to_date
> ------------
> 2001-03-10
> (1 row)
>

Hmm .. because 'MM'and 'DD' expect two digits, more correct is en example
(without Oracle's fundamental "from dual" :-)

test=# select to_date('2001-03-05 10:00', 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI');
to_date
------------
2001-03-05
(1 row)

or you can use 'FM' - "fill mode" switch:

test=# select to_date('2001-3-5 10:00', 'YYYY-FMMM-FMDD HH24:MI');
to_date
------------
2001-03-05
(1 row)

The common rule: data that you want parse in to_date() must be formatted
like output from to_char() with same format mask. The to_char() never output
'2001-3-5 10:00' for 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI'.

Hmm, now I see Oracle and it allows correct parse this dirty query...

SVRMGR> select to_date('2001-3-5 10:00', 'YYYY-FMMM-FMDD HH24:MI') from
dual;
TO_DATE('
---------
05-MAR-01
1 row selected.

..but nothing say Oracle's documentation about this (IMHO). Well I add it
to my TODO for 7.2, but it's prop for users those not reading docs...

Karel

--
Karel Zak <zakkr(at)zf(dot)jcu(dot)cz>
http://home.zf.jcu.cz/~zakkr/

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