Multiple date formats using sql developer

Question

Hello!
i have 2 date fields in a table.. one is populated using trunc(<date1>) and the other is to_date(<date2>,'YYYYMMDD HH24MISS'). We want <date1> to display as MM/DD/YYYY and <date2> to display as MM/DD/YYYY HH:MI:SS AMPM. When we set the date format under Preference -> Database -> NLS parameter in SQL Developer with a time format it adds 12:00:00 to <date1>, if we take it out, it drops the time in <date2>. What can we do?
thanks!

Answer 1

I think what the original poster wanted was to display the two date columns using different formats in the table "Data" tab and AFAIK that is not possible. Setting a date format in the Preferences accomplishes the same thing as the statement
ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT='<some format>';
in command-line SQL*Plus. To do what the OP wants they'll need to create a view that has a SELECT something like this:
SELECT TO_CHAR( date1, 'YYYY-MM-DD' ) date1
, TO_CHAR( date2, 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS') date2
FROM some_table;
One thing the OP needs to keep in mind is that the DATE datatype stores both date and time together. If they insert a date alone, the time defaults to midnight. (This is stated in the Oracle SQL Reference.)
Ed. H.