{"id":11110,"date":"2024-03-14T13:27:31","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T13:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-is-the-method-for-converting-dates-to-string-in-oracle-using-to_char\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T07:43:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T07:43:17","slug":"what-is-the-method-for-converting-dates-to-string-in-oracle-using-to_char","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-is-the-method-for-converting-dates-to-string-in-oracle-using-to_char\/","title":{"rendered":"Oracle TO_CHAR: Convert Date to String"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Oracle, you can use the TO_CHAR function to convert a date into a specific format string. The syntax is as follows:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"post-pre\"><code>TO_CHAR(<span class=\"hljs-type\">date<\/span>, format)\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this case, date is the date to be converted, and format is the specified date format, which can be one of the following:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS: Year-Month-Day Hour:Minute:Second<\/li>\n<li>YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS AM\uff1aYear-Month-Day 12-Hour:Minute:Second AM\/PM<\/li>\n<li>MM\/DD\/YYYY HH:MI:SS AM:Month\/Day\/Year Hour:Minute:Second AM\/PM<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Wait a moment.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>For example, converting the current date into a string with the format YYYY-MM-DD:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"post-pre\"><code><span class=\"hljs-keyword\">SELECT<\/span> TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, <span class=\"hljs-string\">'YYYY-MM-DD'<\/span>) <span class=\"hljs-keyword\">FROM<\/span> dual;\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>This will return a string similar to &#8216;2022-01-10&#8217;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Oracle, you can use the TO_CHAR function to convert a date into a specific format string. The syntax is as follows: TO_CHAR(date, format) In this case, date is the date to be converted, and format is the specified date format, which can be one of the following: YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS: Year-Month-Day Hour:Minute:Second YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS AM\uff1aYear-Month-Day [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14184,813,5036,5035,14185],"class_list":["post-11110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-date-to-string","tag-oracle-database","tag-oracle-date-formatting","tag-oracle-to_char","tag-sql-date-conversion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.5 (Yoast SEO v21.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Oracle TO_CHAR: Convert Date to String - Blog - Silicon Cloud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how to use Oracle TO_CHAR function to convert dates to strings. Guide covers syntax, format options and examples for date conversion in Oracle.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-is-the-method-for-converting-dates-to-string-in-oracle-using-to_char\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oracle TO_CHAR: Convert Date to String\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn how to use Oracle TO_CHAR function to convert dates to strings. Guide covers syntax, format options and examples for date conversion in Oracle.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-is-the-method-for-converting-dates-to-string-in-oracle-using-to_char\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blog - Silicon Cloud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SiliCloudGlobal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-14T13:27:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-04T07:43:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sophia Anderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SiliCloudGlobal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SiliCloudGlobal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sophia Anderson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-is-the-method-for-converting-dates-to-string-in-oracle-using-to_char\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-is-the-method-for-converting-dates-to-string-in-oracle-using-to_char\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sophia Anderson\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/19a24313de9c988db3d69226b4a40a30\"},\"headline\":\"Oracle TO_CHAR: Convert Date to String\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-14T13:27:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-04T07:43:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-is-the-method-for-converting-dates-to-string-in-oracle-using-to_char\/\"},\"wordCount\":113,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Date to string\",\"Oracle database\",\"Oracle date formatting\",\"Oracle TO_CHAR\",\"SQL date conversion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-is-the-method-for-converting-dates-to-string-in-oracle-using-to_char\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-is-the-method-for-converting-dates-to-string-in-oracle-using-to_char\/\",\"name\":\"Oracle TO_CHAR: Convert Date to String - Blog - Silicon Cloud\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-14T13:27:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-04T07:43:17+00:00\",\"description\":\"Learn how to use Oracle TO_CHAR function to convert dates to strings. 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