Time display in a date item

Question

This is driving me nuts.
I am trying to dynamically set the initial
value of a date item in a form.
I want it to be one hour prior to the current
system time rounded down to the hour.
i.e. if the current datetime is 07/26/2001 09:12, I want to see 07/26/2001 08:00 in the forms item.
The code I use is as follows;
DECLARE
-- get system datetime
v_date_time_char_format VARCHAR2(25) := :SYSTEM.CURRENT_DATETIME;
-- variable for hour
v_hour VARCHAR2(2);
BEGIN
IF :tbl_sf_site.test_date IS NULL THEN
-- go back one hour and delete blank caused by to_char
v_hour := SUBSTR(TO_CHAR(TO_NUMBER(SUBSTR(v_date_time_char_format,13,2)) - 1,'09'),2,2);
-- set time back one hour
v_date_time_char_format :=
SUBSTR(v_date_time_char_format,1,12)| |v_hour| |':00';
-- display the results of date manipulation
f_alert.ok('v_date_time_char_format is '| |v_date_time_char_format);
-- set value of form item
:tbl_sf_site.test_date :=
TO_DATE(v_date_time_char_format,'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI');
END IF;
END;
The f_alert.ok that displays is 26-JUL-2001 08:00, but the value in the item is 07/26/2001 00:00.
The forms item is a text item of date format with a mask of 'mm/dd/rrrr hh24:mi.

Answer 1

Change the data type of forms item into datetime then try.
null