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.
Examples - Numbers
The following are number examples for the to_char function.
to_char(1210.73, '9999.9') would return '1210.7' to_char(1210.73, '9,999.99') would return '1,210.73' to_char(1210.73, '$9,999.00') would return '$1,210.73' to_char(21, '000099') would return '000021'
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.
Parameter Explanation YEAR Year, spelled out YYYY 4-digit year YYY
YY
YLast 3, 2, or 1 digit(s) of year. IYY
IY
ILast 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'); would return '2003/07/09' to_char(sysdate, 'Month DD, YYYY'); would return 'July 09, 2003' to_char(sysdate, 'FMMonth DD, YYYY'); would return 'July 9, 2003' to_char(sysdate, 'MON DDth, YYYY'); would return 'JUL 09TH, 2003' to_char(sysdate, 'FMMON DDth, YYYY'); would return 'JUL 9TH, 2003' to_char(sysdate, 'FMMon ddth, YYYY'); would return 'Jul 9th, 2003'
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'); would return 'July 9, 2003' to_char(sysdate, 'FMMON DDth, YYYY'); would return 'JUL 9TH, 2003' to_char(sysdate, 'FMMon ddth, YYYY'); would return 'Jul 9th, 2003'
The zeros have been suppressed so that the day component shows as "9" as opposed to "09".