Is this allowed?

Question

CreationDate is a VARCHAR2(30) in the Table.
So I need to Convert it to a Date.
SELECT TO_DATE(CreationDate, 'DD/MM/YYYY') AS "CreationDate"
FROM Table
However, I get an error of "Literal does not match format string"

Answer 1

When you use TO_DATE function with the format specification as second parameter, you are telling Oracle that the value stored in the varchar2 field is actually indeed in that format.
if the value stored in that varchar2 field is NOT in the format that you specified, you will get surprises:
SQL> select to_date('01-2001', 'mm/dd/yyyy') from dual ;
select to_date('01-2001', 'mm/dd/yyyy') from dual
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01861: literal does not match format string
SQL> select to_date('01-2001', 'mm-yyyy') from dual ;
TO_DATE('01
01-Jan-2001
1 row selected.
SQL>Make sure that the format you use with the to_date function matches with the format of the date stored in your varchar2 field.
Also, was there a real need to have a date stored in a varchar2 field in first place?
Message was edited by:
Kamal Kishore