How does it gets the time

Question

hi all ,
declare
mydate date ;
begin
mydate := sysdate ;
dbms_output.put_line(mydate);
end;
i have an existing script that looks like above except it writes into a table e.g tbl1 , Field1
what i dun understand is the output shown is : 31-JUL-06
but why it comes with the time when i select * from tbl1 ? e.g 7/31/2006 3:01:01 AM
how come the date format is different as i do not see any to_char(sysdate , date_format_expression) ??
is this something defulted by Oracle ?
tks & rdgs

Answer 1

---See the difference:
SQL> declare
  2  mydate date ;
  3  begin
  4  mydate := sysdate ;
  5  dbms_output.put_line(mydate);
  6  end;
  7  /
31-JUL-06
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> select mnt from visit;
MNT
09-JAN-06
10-JAN-06
SQL> alter session set nls_date_format='MM/DD/YYYY HH:MI:SS AM';
Session altered.
SQL> select mnt from visit;
MNT
01/09/2006 07:43:01 PM
01/10/2006 07:43:21 PM
SQL> SELECT SYSDATE FROM DUAL;
SYSDATE
07/31/2006 09:01:35 AM
SQL> declare
  2  mydate date ;
  3  begin
  4  mydate := sysdate ;
  5  dbms_output.put_line(mydate);
  6  end;
  7  /
07/31/2006 09:02:58 AM
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.