TO_NCHAR(datetime)

Purpose

TO_NCHAR(datetime) converts a value of the DATE, TIMESTAMP, TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE, TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE, INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH, or INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND data type in the database character set to a data type in the national character set.

Syntax

TO_NCHAR({ datetime | interval }[, fmt [, 'nlsparam' ] ])

Parameters

Return type

The return type is a data type of the national character set.

Examples

• The following example uses the TO_NCHAR() function to return the current date in the YYYY/MM/DD and DSDL formats respectively.

  obclient> SELECT TO_NCHAR(SYSDATE,'yyyy/mm/dd'),TO_NCHAR(SYSDATE,'DSDL') FROM DUAL;
  +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
  | TO_NCHAR(SYSDATE,'YYYY/MM/DD') | TO_NCHAR(SYSDATE,'DSDL')               |
  +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
  | 2021/12/09                     | 12/09/2021 Thursday, December 09, 2021 |
  +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
  1 row in set
  

• The following example converts a time interval value to the numeric format and sets the language of the returned result to AMERICAN.

  obclient> SELECT TO_NCHAR(interval'90' MINUTE, 'SS-MI-HH', 'nls_language = AMERICAN') FROM DUAL;
  +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
  | TO_NCHAR(INTERVAL'90'MINUTE,'SS-MI-HH','NLS_LANGUAGE=AMERICAN') |
  +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
  | +00 01:30:00                                                    |
  +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
  1 row in set