Date Substract Format

Question

I'm trying to format following query.
SELECT TO_CHAR(START_DATE, 'HH:MM:SS'), TO_CHAR(END_DATE, 'HH:MM:SS'),
TO_CHAR(END_DATE - START_DATE, 'HH:MM:SS')
FROM TIMES
Oracle returns following message:
ORA-01481: invalid number format model
Somebody knows how to convert from number to date values?
I appreciate some help
Best regards

Answer 1

The problem is that when you subtract two dates, Oracle returns a number -- which is the 'portion of the day' -- you can take the result and multiply it by 86400 to get the number of seconds in a day and then convert that back to a date... Once this is converted back to a date - you can then convert it to a character - with your date format... Sounds kind of sloppy - and it is, but it works..
here's the example i used (which is REALLY SLOPPY)
SELECT TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(((SYSDATE - TO_DATE('28-JUN-2002 08:00','DD-MON-YY HH24:MI')) * 86400), 'SSSSS'), 'HH:MI:SS') FROM DUAL
Now, I'll attempt yours without testing..
SELECT TO_CHAR(START_DATE, 'HH:MM:SS'), TO_CHAR(END_DATE, 'HH:MM:SS'),
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(((END_DATE - START_DATE, 'HH:MM:SS') * 86400), 'SSSSS'), 'HH:MI:SS')
FROM TIMES
Hope this helps!
Michelle
I'm trying to format following query.
SELECT TO_CHAR(START_DATE, 'HH:MM:SS'), TO_CHAR(END_DATE, 'HH:MM:SS'),
TO_CHAR(END_DATE - START_DATE, 'HH:MM:SS')
FROM TIMES
Oracle returns following message:
ORA-01481: invalid number format model
Somebody knows how to convert from number to date values?
I appreciate some help
Best regards