TO DATE

TO_DATE is a SQL function for converting a character string to an Oracle DATE.

Syntax

The syntax for the TO_DATE function is:

to_date( string, [ format_mask ], [ nls_language ] )

Where:

• string is the string that will be converted to a date.
• format_mask is optional. This is the format that will be used to convert the string to a date.
• nls_language is also optional. This is the NLS language (regional settings) used to convert the string to a date.

Examples

SQL> SELECT TO_DATE('4-JAN-2009', 'DD-MON-YYYY') FROM dual;
TO_DATE('
---------
04-JAN-09

Also see

• TO_CHAR, function to convert a date or number to a string.
• TO_NUMBER, function to convert a string to a number.