Oracle SQL - TO_CHAR function

Introduction

To format a date, use the TO_CHAR function.

TO_CHAR formats a date data type to a string by an format string.

The syntax of TO_CHAR is:

TO_CHAR(column name in date data type, format)

Here is an example of TO_CHAR being used in a SELECT statement:

SQL>
SQL> SELECT empno, ename, TO_CHAR(hiredate, 'dd Month yyyy')
  2  FROM employee
  3-- from   w  w w .  ja  v a2s. c  o  m

An alias is required when using TO_CHAR to "pretty up" the output:

SELECT empno, ename, 
TO_CHAR(hiredate, 'dd Month yyyy') "Hiredate" 
FROM employee;


The following table illustrates some TO_CHAR date formatting.

SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'dd Mon, yyyy hh24:mi:ss') 
FROM dual;