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A datetime format template is a template that describes the format of datetime data stored in a character string. A format model does not change the internal representation of the value in the Database. When you convert a character string into a date, a format model determines how Oracle Database interprets the string. In OLAP DML statements, you can use a format model as an argument of the TO_CHAR
and TO_DATE
functions to specify:
The format for Oracle to use to return a value from the Database
The format for a value you have specified for Oracle to store in the Database
You can use datetime format templates in the following functions:
In the TO_*
datetime functions to translate a character value that is in a format other than the default format into a datetime value. (The TO_
* datetime functions are TO_CHAR
, TO_DATE
, TO_TIMESTAMP
, TO_TIMESTAMP_TZ
, TO_YMINTERVAL
, and TO_DSINTERVAL
.)
In the TO_CHAR
function to translate a datetime value that is in a format other than the default format into a string (for example, to print the date from an application)
The default datetime formats are specified either explicitly with the initialization parameter NLS_DATE_FORMAT
or implicitly with the initialization parameter NLS_TERRITORY
. You can change the default datetime formats for your session with the ALTER
SESSION
statement. You can override this default and specify a datetime format for use with a particular OLAP DML object by using the DATE_FORMAT command to add a datetime format to the definition of the object.