Oracle Date Format with input Parametres - PLSQL - sql

Question

I'm getting an error as follows:
ORA-01858 - a non-numeric character was found where a numeric character was expected.
Although it isn't really accurate, I believe it's related to the date formatting in the following lines.
ELSIF par_report_eff_date_start IS NOT NULL AND par_report_eff_date_start = to_date(par_report_eff_date_start, 'fxdd-mm-yyyy')
and
ELSIF par_report_eff_date_end IS NOT NULL AND par_report_eff_date_end = to_date( par_report_eff_date_end ,'fxDD-MM-YYYY')
I'm trying to get the parameters to render date in the format of 'dd/mm/yyyy' as it is passed in, but i'm not sure how to get around this.
I have looked, but have limited web access at work, so I can't use the regular sites.
procedure collect_mon_comm_bal_data_part (
par_report_eff_date_start DATE DEFAULT NULL, --dd/mm/yyyy;
par_report_eff_date_end DATE DEFAULT NULL) --dd/mm/yyyy;
is
v_report_eff_date_start DATE;
v_report_eff_date_end DATE;
BEGIN
IF par_report_eff_date_start IS NULL
THEN
-- Oracle job runs at the beginning of each month
select trunc(trunc(sysdate,'Mon')-1,'Mon')
into v_report_eff_date_start
from dual; -- Start of month Var
ELSIF par_report_eff_date_start IS NOT NULL AND par_report_eff_date_start = to_char(par_report_eff_date_start, 'fxdd/mm/yyyy')
THEN
v_report_eff_date_start := par_report_eff_date_start;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(par_report_eff_date_start || 'Is The Start Date');
ELSE
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(par_report_eff_date_start || 'Is is the wrong format, needs tp be in dd/mm/yyyy');
GOTO the_end;
END IF;
IF par_report_eff_date_end IS NULL
THEN
-- Oracle job runs at the beginning of each month
select trunc(sysdate,'MM')-1
into v_report_eff_date_end
from dual; -- Start of month Var
ELSIF par_report_eff_date_end IS NOT NULL AND par_report_eff_date_end = to_char(par_report_eff_date_end, 'fxdd/mm/yyyy')
THEN
v_report_eff_date_end := par_report_eff_date_end;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(par_report_eff_date_end || 'Is The Start Date');
ELSE
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(par_report_eff_date_end || 'Is is the wrong format, needs tp be in dd/mm/yyyy');
GOTO the_end;
END IF;
END;

Answer 1

You don't want to convert a date to a date. You want to convert it to a character string. So try:
to_char(par_report_eff_date_start, 'fxdd-mm-yyyy')
I'm not sure what the rest of the logic is supposed to be doing. But, you use to_date() to convert a value to a date and to_char() to convert a value to a string.

Answer 2

I notice that you have parameter par_report_eff_date_start, and a variable v_report_eff_date_start. You probably want to compare those in the following line:
ELSIF par_report_eff_date_start IS NOT NULL AND par_report_eff_date_start = to_char(par_report_eff_date_start, 'fxdd/mm/yyyy')
But now you are comparing the date parameter with a text value derived from the parameter value. I don't think that's what you want.
A date is just a date, and you only have to think about format masks when converting it to another data type (like VARCHAR2).
So why not use:
ELSIF par_report_eff_date_start IS NOT NULL AND trunc(par_report_eff_date_start) = trunc(sysdate, 'Mon')
I've added trunc() to the parameter value, and because you want the first day of the month (I guess!!), trunc(sysdate, 'Mon') will do just fine.

Answer 3

Thank You Gordon, I think I've found a way around it.
procedure collect_mon_comm_bal_data_part (
par_report_eff_date_start VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL, --dd/mm/yyyy;
par_report_eff_date_end VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL) --dd/mm/yyyy; is
v_report_eff_date_start DATE; v_report_eff_date_end DATE;
BEGIN
IF par_report_eff_date_start IS NULL
THEN
-- Oracle job runs at the beginning of each month
select trunc(trunc(sysdate,'Mon')-1,'Mon')
into v_report_eff_date_start
from dual; -- Start of month Var
ELSIF par_report_eff_date_start IS NOT NULL AND to_date(par_report_eff_date_start, 'dd/mm/yyyy') = to_date(par_report_eff_date_start,'fxdd/mm/yyyy')
THEN
v_report_eff_date_start := to_date(par_report_eff_date_start, 'dd/mm/yyyy');
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(par_report_eff_date_start || 'Is The Start Date');
ELSE
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(par_report_eff_date_start || 'Is is the wrong format, needs tp be in dd/mm/yyyy');
GOTO the_end; END IF;
IF par_report_eff_date_end IS NULL
THEN
-- Oracle job runs at the beginning of each month
select trunc(sysdate,'MM')-1
into v_report_eff_date_end
from dual; -- Start of month Var
ELSIF par_report_eff_date_end IS NOT NULL AND to_date(par_report_eff_date_end, 'dd/mm/yyyy') = to_date(par_report_eff_date_end,'fxdd/mm/yyyy')
THEN
v_report_eff_date_end := to_date(par_report_eff_date_end, 'dd/mm/yyyy');
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(par_report_eff_date_end || 'Is The Start Date');
ELSE
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(par_report_eff_date_end || 'Is is the wrong format, needs tp be in dd/mm/yyyy');
GOTO the_end; END IF;
So I want it to default to a monthly run, for the previous month if the parameters are null. And I want it to run for selected dates, should they be put in manually at execution, this way I can run it for a year period to build up a proper sample of data, that will be updated as it changes going forward.
I have tried to pass in bogus dates, and null dates and they hit the exception or run for a month of data as expected, so this works for me.
Thanks again guys, I really the help!