store dates in oracle - sql

Question

I have a table as
create table Dummy (date_created date)
in oracle.I want to store date in 'dd-mon-yyyy' (12-dec-2010) format.
How should i do this.
Please help.

Answer 1

In Oracle a column created with the DATE datatype just stores the date. It doesn't have a particular format, it just stores the day, month, year, hour, minute, and second. You need to convert from whatever format you have using the TO_DATE function. If you have a text string with the date in 'dd-mon-yyyy' format and you want to put this date into your table you'd use something like
INSERT INTO DUMMY (DATE_CREATED)
VALUES (TO_DATE('01-FEB-2011', 'DD-MON-YYYY');
Going the other way (from DATE column value to character string) you'd use the TO_CHAR function. If you were retrieving a value from your table and wanted to convert it to 'DD-MON-YYYY' format you'd use something like
SELECT TO_CHAR(DATE_CREATED, 'DD-MON-YYYY')
FROM DUMMY;
Share and enjoy.

Answer 2

Use to_date() function. In your case, the syntax would be
insert into Dummy values (to_date('08-09-2010', 'dd-mm-yyyy'));
Here is a link to the detailed help.

Answer 3

The DATE datatype will store date and time information (century, year, month, day, hours, minutes, and seconds) in an internal format in the database. When you get it out of the database, you can choose to display it in whatever format you like.
This information is either created using implicit conversion from a string or explicitly using either the TO_DATE function or the ANSI date literal. If you look in the v$nls_parameters view, this will tell you what the NLS_DATE_FORMAT is which is generally used for the implicit conversion. This may often be defined as DD-MON-RR, which might be why the date will come out as 23-DEC-10 when the query select sysdate from dual is run. (Not entirely sure I'm right about the nls stuff. Correct me if I'm wrong.)
However, all the date information is available if you know how to get it. The query select to_char(sysdate, 'dd-mon-yyyy hh24:mi:ss') from dual will return all the date fields.
Likewise, the insert statement shown below will create a row with a date value in it.
insert into dummy (date_created)
values (to_date('12-dec-2010 12:34:56', 'dd-mon-yyyy hh24:mi:ss'))`
This data can then be retrieved.
select date_created from dummy
This will implicitly convert the date to a character string using the NLS_DATE_FORMAT, providing the output below.
DATE_CREA
---------
23-DEC-10
The full date information is available by explicitly converting the date to a character string.
select to_char(date_created, 'DD-MON-YYYY') as date_created from dummy;
select to_char(date_created, 'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS') as date_created
from dummy;
This will provide output in the format you require:
DATE_CREATE
-----------
23-DEC-2010
If you always use the TO_DATE and TO_CHAR functions to convert to/from a date datatype, then you will have fewer problems. Implicit conversion is useful but can cause some confusion or problems.

Answer 4

You can keep and eye here
http://www.techonthenet.com/oracle/functions/to_date.php
use to_date function to save a data with the format you need. I suggest to use SYSDATE updating table and when you need to read data from table use something like that:
dbms_output.put_line(TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS'));
to solve your problem use:
to_date('08/JAN/2010', 'DD/MON/YYYY')

Answer 5

Just use TRUNC(YourDate) if date have time part, it will be truncate time part. Oracle have not just 'DATE' type, 'DATE' always have time part.
However if you do not specify time - it will 00:00:00.
SELECT TRUNC(SYSDATE) from dual
Result:
23-12-2010

Answer 6

Oracle does not support DATE without time part.
You can make it always be an integer date by adding a CHECK constraint:
CREATE TABLE dummy (date_created date CHECK (date_created = TRUNC(date_created)))
, insert it in any format you want:
INSERT
INTO dummy (date_created)
VALUES (TO_DATE('23-DEC-2010', 'dd-mon-yyyy'))
and select it in any format you want:
SELECT TO_CHAR(date_created, 'dd-mon-yyyy')
FROM dummy