The Dreaded ORA-01830 error.

Question

The following code snippets (taken from a java server pages program) :
<%! private String timeStamp() {
java.util.Date today = new java.util.Date();
SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MMM-yyyy:HH:mm");
return(formatter.format(today));
%>
<%
SQL = "Insert into changelist (RcdNr,BaseNr,SiteNr,Action,UpdatedBy,DateUpdated,Remarks) ";
SQL += "values (changeListCounter.nextval"+login.getBaseNr()+",'"+selSite;
SQL += "','Reactivated','"+login.getUserID()+"','"+timeStamp()+"',";
SQL += "'"+request.getParameter("txtReason")+"')";
RowsAffected = Stmt.executeUpdate(SQL);
%>
result in the following error:
java.sql.SQLException: ORA-01830: date format picture ends before converting entire input string
The SQL statement created is as follows:
update sites set status = 1,deactivatedby = '[email protected]', datedeactivated = '15-Jun-2001:09:21' where sitenr = 'ULDF0001'"
Datedeactivated is defined as a 'Date' field in table sites.
Oracle 8i Error Messages returns the following:
ORA-01830 date format picture ends before converting entire input string
Cause: A valid date format picture included extra data. The first part of the format picture was converted into a valid date, but the remaining data was not required.
Action: Check the specifications for date format pictures and correct the statement.
QUESTION:
What is the correct date format picture to get both the time and date into an Oracle 'Date' field? I've seen many posting on how but never any on what. TIA.
null

Answer 1

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by John Haasbeek ([email protected]):
To use a string in an insert, you can guarantee success only by using the TO_DATE function and explicitly specifying the date picture. That is because the default date picture is modifyable in the database init file (initxxx.ora). So do the following:
String myDateString = "20010501";
String myDateFormat = "YYYYMMDD";
sql = "INSERT INTO my_table (my_date) ";
sql += "VALUES (TO_DATE('" + myDateString + "',";
sql += "'" + myDateFormat + "'))";
John H.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
And to use both the date and time it would be
String myDateTimeString = "20010501105801";
String myDateTimeFormat = "YYYYMMDDHHMMDD";
sql = "INSERT INTO my_table (my_date) ";
sql += "VALUES (TO_DATE('" + myDateTIMEString + "',";
sql += "'" + myDateTimeFormat + "'))";
Right?