Assign substitution variable to another substitution variable with truncation of value

Question

I launch a sql*plus .sql script by way of a concurent job. The concurrent job provides a date paramenter to the script.  Job log shows the date passed to scrpit as:
Arguments
2013/09/01 00:00:00
For cosmetic purposes in the ouput's heading, I want to convert/truncate the character string to an end-user format of 2013/09/01.
Trying to simply change one substitution variable
(below is not working, but hopefully telegraphs my intention:
UnDefine Low_date
Define Low_date = '2013-09-01 00:00:00'
UnDefine Low_date_10
Define Low_date_10 = 'yyyy-mm-ds'
select substr('&Low_Date',1,10) into &Low_date_10 from dual;
prompt "Variable value is: &Low_date_10"
WHICH PRODUCES:
old:select substr('&Low_Date',1,10) into &Low_date_10 from dual
new:select substr('2013-09-01 00:00:00',1,10) into yyyy-mm-ds from dual
Error starting at line 8 in command:
select substr('2013-09-01 00:00:00',1,10) into yyyy-mm-ds from dual
Error at Command Line:8 Column:55
Error report:
SQL Error: ORA-00905: missing keyword
00905. 00000 -  "missing keyword"
*Cause:   
*Action:
old:prompt "Variable value is: &Low_date_10"
new:prompt "Variable value is: yyyy-mm-ds"
"Variable value is: yyyy-mm-dd"
"I need to get to "Variable value is: 2013/09/01"

Answer 1

Hi,
SELECT ... INTO only works in PL/SQL.
In SQL*Plus, you can use COLUMN ... NEW_VALUE, like this:
DEFINE  low_date = '2013-09-01 00:00:00'
COLUMN low_date_10_col        NEW_VALUE  low_date_10
SELECT  REPLACE ( SUBSTR ( '&Low_Date', 1, 10)
                )    AS low_date_10_col
FROM  dual;
PROMPT  Variable value is: &Low_date_10