Date Format in file name

Question

I have this query
SELECT file_prefix ||'_'||file_name||'_'||TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(sysdate, 'DD-MON-YYYY'),'RRRRMMDD')||'_THRU_'||TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(sysdate -1,
'DD-MON-YYYY'),'RRRRMMDD')||'.txt' file_path
FROM payment_schedule
WHERE payee_id = 2
AND payment_period_from = 1;
The result set i am expecting is
Sales_Commissions_20100310_THRU_20100309.txt
but the result i am getting is
Sales_Commissions_00100310_THRU_00100309.txt
It show up as 00 instead of 20 in the date field.
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

>
SELECT file_prefix ||'_'||file_name||'_'||TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(sysdate, 'DD-MON-YYYY'),'RRRRMMDD')||'_THRU_'||TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(sysdate -1,
'DD-MON-YYYY'),'RRRRMMDD')||'.txt' file_path
FROM payment_schedule
WHERE payee_id = 2
AND payment_period_from = 1;
>
Here you are using TO_DATE(sysdate,...) that seems to be a common mistake we see in this forum. sysdate is returned as a DATE datatype so there is no need to TO_DATE() it. In fact, it can result in all sorts of errors and corrupt data.
Instead you probably want something more like
SELECT file_prefix||'_'||file_name||'_'||
       TO_CHAR( sysdate, 'YYYYMMDD')||
       '_THRU_'||TO_CHAR( sysdate -1, 'YYYYMMDD')||
       '.txt' AS file_path...