In Oracle/PLSQL, the to_char function converts a number or date to a string.
The syntax for the to_char function is:
to_char( value, [ format_mask ], [ nls_language ] )
value can either be a number or date that will be converted to a string.
format_mask is optional. This is the format that will be used to convert value to a string.
nls_language is optional. This is the nls language used to convert value to a string.
Applies To:
Oracle 8i, Oracle 9i, Oracle 10g, Oracle 11g
Examples - Numbers
The following are number examples for the to_char function.
Examples - Dates
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.
The following are date examples for the to_char function.
You will notice that in some 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');
to_char(sysdate, 'FMMON DDth, YYYY');
to_char(sysdate, 'FMMon ddth, YYYY');
would return 'July 9, 2003'
would return 'JUL 9TH, 2003'
would return 'Jul 9th, 2003'
The zeros have been suppressed so that the day component shows as "9" as opposed to "09".