Oracle SQL / PLSQL: TO_CHAR Function

Definition:

The Oracle TO_CHAR function converts a string, date, a datetime-interval or a number into a character string.

If the first parameter is DATE type, it will be converted to a string representation. The resulting string style is specified with DATETYPE format elements which are optional parameters in the second parameter. 

Example Syntax:

TO_CHAR(nchar_clob_or_nclob)
TO_CHAR (datetime_or_interval)
TO_CHAR (datetime_or_interval, 'format_string')
TO_CHAR (datetime_or_interval, 'format_string', 'nlsparam')

TO_CHAR (number)
TO_CHAR (number,'format_string')
TO_CHAR (number,'format_string', 'nlsparam')

Parameters or Arguments

value

A number or date that will be converted to a string.

format_mask

Optional. This is the format that will be used to convert value to a string.

nls_language

Optional. This is the nls language used to convert value to a string.

Applies To

The TO_CHAR function can be used in the following versions of Oracle/PLSQL:

• Oracle 12c, Oracle 11g, Oracle 10g, Oracle 9i, Oracle 8i

Example

Let's look at some Oracle TO_CHAR function examples and explore how to use the TO_CHAR function in Oracle/PLSQL.

Examples with Numbers

For example:

The following are number examples for the TO_CHAR function.

TO_CHAR(1210.73, '9999.9') 

Result: ' 1210.7' 

TO_CHAR(-1210.73, '9999.9') 

Result: '-1210.7' 

TO_CHAR(1210.73, '9,999.99') 

Result: ' 1,210.73' 

TO_CHAR(1210.73, '$9,999.00') 

Result: ' $1,210.73' 

TO_CHAR(21, '000099') 

Result: ' 000021'

Examples with 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 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";

TO_CHAR Complete World:
Convert Datatype To String	TO_CHAR(<string_or_column>, <format>) RETURN VARCHAR2
	SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'MM/DD/YYYY HH:MI:SS') FROM DUAL;
Converts  DATE and  TIMESTAMP to VARCHAR2  with the specified formatThe "X" in the ROUND andTRUNC column indicates that these symbols with these functions	TO_DATE(<date_string>, <format mask>, <NLS_PARAMETER>)
	-- before running these demos SQL> ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT = 'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS';   Symbol Description ROUND TRUNC CC One greater than the first two digits of a four-digit year X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'CC') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'CC') --------------------------------------------- 21 D Starting day of the week X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'D') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'D') -------------------------------------------- 4 DD Day X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'DD') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'DD') --------------------------------------------- 02 DDD Day X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'DDD') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'DDD') ---------------------------------------------- 093 DAY Starting day of the week  X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'DAY') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'DAY') ---------------------------------------------- WEDNESDAY DY Starting day of the week  X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'DY') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'DY') ---------------------------------------------- WED HH Hours  X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'HH') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'HH') --------------------------------------------- 10 HH12 Hours     SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'HH12') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'HH12') ----------------------------------------------- 10 HH24 Hours     SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'HH24') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'HH24') ----------------------------------------------- 22 I ISO Year X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'I') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'I') -------------------------------------------- 8 IW Same day of the week as the first day of the ISO year     SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'IW') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'IW') --------------------------------------------- 14 IY ISO Year     SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'IY') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'IY') --------------------------------------------- 08 IYY ISO Year     SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'IYY') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'IYY') ------------------------------------------------ 008 IYYY ISO Year     SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'IYYY') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'IYYY') ------------------------------------------------ 2008 J Julian Day     SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'J') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'J') -------------------------------------------- 2454559 MI Minutes  X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'MI') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'MI') --------------------------------------------- 29 MM Month (rounds up on the sixteenth day)     SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'MM') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'MM') --------------------------------------------- 04 MON Month (rounds up on the sixteenth day)  X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'MON') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'MON') ---------------------------------------------- APR MONTH Month (rounds up on the sixteenth day)  X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'MONTH') FROMDUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'MONTH') ------------------------------------------------ APRIL Q Quarter (rounds up on 16th day of the 2nd month of the quarter)     SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'Q') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'Q') -------------------------------------------- 2 RM Month (rounds up on the sixteenth day) in Roman Numerals     SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'RM') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'RM') --------------------------------------------- IV SCC One greater than the first two digits of a four-digit year X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'SCC') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'SCC') ---------------------------------------------- 21 SYYYY Year (rounds up on July 1) X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'SYYYY') FROMDUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'SYYYY') ------------------------------------------------ 2008 W Week number in the month     SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'W') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'W') -------------------------------------------- 1 WW Week of the year     SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'WW') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'WW') --------------------------------------------- 14 Y One Digit Year X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'Y') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'Y') -------------------------------------------- 8 YY Two Digit Year X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'YY') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'YY') --------------------------------------------- 08 YYY Three Digit Year X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'YYY') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'YYY') ---------------------------------------------- 008 YYYY Four Digit Year X X SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'YYYY') FROM DUAL; TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'YYYY') ----------------------------------------------- 2008 CREATE TABLE t ( datecol1 DATE, datecol2 DATE); INSERT INTO t (datecol1, datecol2) VALUES (SYSDATE, SYSDATE); col col1 format a30 col col2 format a20 col col3 format a20 col "Financial Quarter" format a20 SELECT TO_CHAR(datecol1, 'DAY-MONTH-YY') COL1,        TO_CHAR(datecol2, 'D-MM/YYYY HH24:MI:SS') COL2,        TO_CHAR(datecol2, 'YYYY-MON-DD HH24') COL3,        TO_CHAR(datecol2, 'Q') "Financial Quarter" FROM t;
Demo of FM Formatting From Tom Kyte (Oracle Magazine 3-4/2004)	SELECT TO_CHAR(dt, 'HH:MI AM') A,        TO_CHAR(dt, 'FMHH:MI AM') B,        TO_CHAR(dt, 'FMHHFM:MI AM') C FROM (SELECT TO_DATE('09:01 am', 'HH:MI AM') dt FROM DUAL);
Convert NUMBER to CHARACTER	TO_CHAR(number)
	SELECT TO_CHAR(123) FROM DUAL;
Convert NUMBER to HEX	TO_CHAR(NUMBER) RETURN HEX
	SELECT TO_CHAR(1048576,'XXXXXXXX') FROM DUAL;
Click To View Referenced Site