Convert Varchar2 to Date

Question

Hello
I have a column value Scaned_date = 2009-09-25 21:41:59.892
that i need to convert it into Date please suggest i am geeting errors in this
Thanks

Answer 1

Hi,
A user-defined fucntion like this can help you find the bad data:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION     to_dt
(     in_txt          IN     VARCHAR2                    -- to be converted
,     in_fmt_txt     IN     VARCHAR2     DEFAULT     'DD-MON-YYYY'     -- optional format
,     in_err_dt     IN     DATE          DEFAULT     NULL
RETURN DATE
DETERMINISTIC
AS
--     to_dt attempts to convert in_txt (assumed to
--          be in the format of in_fmt_txt) to a DATE.
--     If the conversion works, to_dt returns the DATE.
--     If the conversion fails for any reason, to_dt returns in_err_dt.
BEGIN
     -- Try to convert in_txt to a DATE.  If it works, fine.
     RETURN     TO_DATE (in_txt, in_fmt_txt);
EXCEPTION     -- If TO_DATE caused an error, then this is not a valid DATE: return in_err_dt
     WHEN OTHERS
     THEN
          RETURN in_err_dt;
END     to_dt
/Here's how you might use it:
SELECT  primary_key
,       scanned_date
FROM    table_x
WHERE   scanned_date  IS NOT NULL
AND     to_dt ( SUBSTR (scanned_date, 1, 19)
               , 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS'
               )  IS NULL
;iIf you need help, post a little sample data (CREATE TABLE and INSERT statements), the results you want to get from that data, and your complete query that gets an error with the sample data.