The following is a list of valid parameters when the TO_CHAR function is used to convert a date to a string. These parameters can be used in many combinations.
Parameter Explanation YEAR Year, spelled out YYYY 4-digit year YYY YY Y Last 3, 2, or 1 digit(s) of year. IYY IY I Last 3, 2, or 1 digit(s) of ISO year. IYYY 4-digit year based on the ISO standard Q Quarter of year (1, 2, 3, 4; JAN-MAR = 1). MM Month (01-12; JAN = 01). MON Abbreviated name of month. MONTH Name of month, padded with blanks to length of 9 characters. RM Roman numeral month (I-XII; JAN = I). WW Week of year (1-53) where week 1 starts on the first day of the year and continues to the seventh day of the year. W Week of month (1-5) where week 1 starts on the first day of the month and ends on the seventh. IW Week of year (1-52 or 1-53) based on the ISO standard. D Day of week (1-7). DAY Name of day. DD Day of month (1-31). DDD Day of year (1-366). DY Abbreviated name of day. J Julian day; the number of days since January 1, 4712 BC. HH Hour of day (1-12). HH12 Hour of day (1-12). HH24 Hour of day (0-23). MI Minute (0-59). SS Second (0-59). SSSSS Seconds past midnight (0-86399). FF Fractional seconds.
The following are date examples for the TO_CHAR function.
TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'yyyy/mm/dd')
Result: '2003/07/09'
TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'Month DD, YYYY')
Result: 'July 09, 2003'
TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'FMMonth DD, YYYY')
Result: 'July 9, 2003'
TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'MON DDth, YYYY')
Result: 'JUL 09TH, 2003'
TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'FMMON DDth, YYYY')
Result: 'JUL 9TH, 2003'
TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'FMMon ddth, YYYY')
Result: 'Jul 9th, 2003'
You will notice that in some TO_CHAR function examples, the format_mask parameter begins with "FM". This means that zeros and blanks are suppressed. This can be seen in the examples below.
TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'FMMonth DD, YYYY')
Result: 'July 9, 2003'
TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'FMMON DDth, YYYY')
Result: 'JUL 9TH, 2003'
TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'FMMon ddth, YYYY')
Result: 'Jul 9th, 2003'
The zeros have been suppressed so that the day component shows as "9" as opposed to "09".
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Why doesn't this sort the days of the week in order?
SELECT ename, hiredate, TO_CHAR((hiredate),'fmDay') "Day"
FROM emp
ORDER BY "Day";
Answer: In the above SQL, the fmDay format mask used in the TO_CHAR function will return the name of the Day and not the numeric value of the day.
To sort the days of the week in order, you need to return the numeric value of the day by using the fmD format mask as follows:
SELECT ename, hiredate, TO_CHAR((hiredate),'fmD') "Day"
FROM emp
ORDER BY "Day";
SimpleDateFormat
Letter Date or Time Component Presentation Examples G Era designator Text AD y Year Year 1996; 96 M Month in year Month July; Jul; 07 w Week in year Number 27 W Week in month Number 2 D Day in year Number 189 d Day in month Number 10 F Day of week in month Number 2 E Day in week Text Tuesday; Tue a Am/pm marker Text PM H Hour in day (0-23) Number 0 k Hour in day (1-24) Number 24 K Hour in am/pm (0-11) Number 0 h Hour in am/pm (1-12) Number 12 m Minute in hour Number 30 s Second in minute Number 55 S Millisecond Number 978 z Time zone General time zone Pacific Standard Time; PST; GMT-08:00 Z Time zone RFC 822 time zone -0800