Type casting issue

Question

Hello All,
I've a Type casting issue. Could yu please help me resolving it.
I'm trying to initialize the variable v with sysdate ('mon-dd-yy:hh:mi:ss') but couldn't initialize. I was able to do that in the body but is it not possible to do it in the declaration part?
I was able to do like this
DECLARE
  v varchar2(25);
BEGIN
  SELECT to_char(sysdate,'mon-dd-yy:hh:mi:ss') INTO v FROM dual;
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(v);
END;
Output looks like this: jan-19-12:04:32:11But how to do it in delaration part?
DECLARE
  v varchar2(25);
  v := to_date(sysdate, 'mon-dd-...') ? ? ?
BEGIN
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(v);
END;Thx
Shank.

Answer 1

You don't need to cast a sysdate to a date. It already is a date.
SQL> alter session set nls_date_format = 'mon-dd-yy:hh:mi:ss';
Session altered.
SQL>
SQL> DECLARE
  2    v varchar2(25);
  3    v_date date:= sysdate;
  4  BEGIN
  5      DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(v_date);
  6  END;
  7  /
jan-19-12:04:46:40
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.Hope this helps.