Oracle TO_DATE Function Guide

1 year ago
Noah Thompson
2 minutes

In Oracle database, the TO_DATE function is used to convert a string into a date. The syntax of the TO_DATE function is as follows:

Convert the string to a date using the specified format.

In this case, ‘string’ is the string that needs to be converted into a date, and ‘format’ is the format of the string.

For example:

SELECT TO_DATE('2021-10-20', 'YYYY-MM-DD') FROM dual;

The above statement converts the string ‘2021-10-20’ into a date.

The format parameter of the TO_DATE function is used to specify the format of the string, using specific format codes to represent different parts of the date and time. Here are some commonly used format codes:

  1. YYYY: A four-digit year.
  2. MM: Two months
  3. Two dates.
  4. HH: two-hour (24-hour format)
  5. MI: Two minutes
  6. SS: Two seconds.

For example, to convert the string ‘2021-10-20 08:30:00’ into a date, you can use the following statement:

SELECT TO_DATE('2021-10-20 08:30:00', 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS') FROM dual;

The TO_DATE function can also handle strings in other formats, such as:

SELECT TO_DATE('20-OCT-2021', 'DD-MON-YYYY') FROM dual;

The statement above converts the string ’20-OCT-2021′ into a date.

It is important to note that the TO_DATE function will throw an exception for invalid date strings. If the string does not match the specified format or contains invalid date parts, the TO_DATE function will fail.

In addition, the TO_DATE function can also be used in conjunction with other date functions, such as the TO_CHAR function, to convert dates into specific formatted strings, allowing for date conversion and formatting operations.

In summary, the TO_DATE function in Oracle is used to convert a string to a date by parsing the string with the specified format parameter. It is one of the key functions for manipulating date data.

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