Oracle Date Functions with Examples

Given below are the various oracle date functions with examples:

1. CURRENT_DATE

This function is used to get the current date in the session time zone. It requires no parameters and
is a very simple function.

Syntax:

CURRENT_DATE

Example:

In this example we will try to find the current date of the session using this function.

Code:

SELECT CURRENT_DATE FROM DUAL;

In the output we will see the current date of the session time zone.

2. SYSDATE

This function returns the current date and time of the Operating system in which the Oracle
database is installed.

Syntax:

SYSDATE

Example:
In this example we are going to find the sysdate of the operating system in which the current
database is installed.

Code:

select sysdate from dual;

Output:

oracle date function 1

As, we can see the screen shot shows us the system date.

3. EXTRACT

This extract function in Oracle is used to retrieve a specific component which can be year, day,
month, hour, minute, second from a date value.

Syntax:

EXTRACT (component from source)

Parameters:

component: It refers to the component we want to extract (year, day, month, hour, minute, second).

source: It refers to the value (DATE, TIMESTAMP) from which we want to extract.

Example:

In this example we are going to extract the year from a date.

Code:

SELECT

EXTRACT( YEAR FROM TO_DATE( '29-Apr-2020 05:30:20 ', 'DD-Mon-YYYY HH24:MI:SS' ) ) YEAR

FROM DUAL;
We have used to_date function.

Output:

oracle date function 2

In the above screen shot we can see that the year has been successfully extracted.

4. TO_DATE

This function converts a date which is in string type to date value. It takes three arguments.

Syntax:

TO_DATE(string, format, nls_language)

Parameters:

string: It refers to the date in string type which we want to convert.

format: It refers to the date and time format in which we want to convert and it is an optional
parameter.

nls_language: It refers to the language for the day and month names. It is also an optional
parameter.

Example:

In this example we will convert a date in string to date value.

Code:

SELECT

TO_DATE( '20 APR 2020', 'DD MON YYYY' )CONVERTED_DATE FROM dual;

Output:
oracle date function 3

As we can see in the screen shot the DATE value has been converted into a specific format.

5. TO_CHAR

It is used to convert a date from DATE value to a specified date format.

Syntax:

TO_CHAR(expression, date_format)

Parameters:

expression: It refers to the DATE or an INTERVAL value which needs to be converted. The expression
can be of type DATE OR TIMESTAMP

date_format: It refers to the specified format in which we are going to convert the expression. It is
optional parameter.

Example:

In this example we are going to convert the system date or current date into a string value in a
format DD-MM-YYYY.

Code:

SELECT

TO_CHAR( sysdate, 'DD-MM-YYYY' )NEW_DATE FROM dual;

Output:

TO_CHAR

As, we can see in the screen shot the sysdate has been converted in a specified format.
6. LAST_DAY

This function is used to return the last day of the month of the particular date. It takes a DATE
argument as a parameter.

Syntax:

LAST_DAY(date)

Parameter:

date: This refers to the date value for which we want to get the last day of the month.

Example:

In this example we are going to extract the last day of the month of sysdate.

Code:

SELECT

LAST_DAY(sysdate) LAST_DAY FROM dual;

Output:

oracle date function 5

As we can see in the screen shot the query displays the last day of the month of April.

7. MONTHS_BETWEEN

This function is used to measure the months between two dates.

It takes two parameters as arguments.

Syntax:
MONTHS_BETWEEN(from_date, to_date)

Parameters:

from_date: It refers to the date which is subtracted from.

to_date: It refers to the date which is to be subtracted.

Example:

In this example we will calculate the months between system date and the date on which India won
its second cricket world cup which was 2 April 2011.

Code:

SELECT MONTHS_BETWEEN( sysdate, DATE '2011-04-02' ) MONTH_DIFFERENCE FROM DUAL;

Output:

MONTHS_BETWEEN

As we can see in the screen shot the query displays the months between the two dates.

8. ADD_MONTHS

This function adds N months to a date and returns the same day N month after.

Syntax:

ADD_MONTHS(expression, N)

Parameters:

expression: It refers to the date value.

N: It represents the number of months.

Example:

To get the today system day date after 2 months using the ADD_MONTHS function.

Code:

SELECT ADD_MONTHS( sysdate, 2 ) NEWDATE FROM dual;

Output:

ADD_MONTHS

9. CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

This function returns the current date and time in the session time zone.

Syntax:

CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

Example:

Let us try to get the current time stamp of this particular session time zone.

Code:

SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP FROM dual;

Output:

CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

10. DBTIMEZONE
This represents the database time zone.

Syntax:

DBTIMEZONE

Example:

To get the current database time zone.

Code:

SELECT DBTIMEZONE FROM dual;

Output:

DBTIMEZONE

11. FROM_TZ

This function converts the TIMESTAMP to TIMESTAMP with TIME ZONE value.

Syntax:

FROM_TZ(timestamp, timezone)

Parameters:

timestamp: It refers to the timestamp value.

timezone: It is a character string TZH:TZM.

Example:

To convert a timestamp to a timestamp with timezone value.

Code:

SELECT FROM_TZ(TIMESTAMP '2020-05-01 19:35:10', '-07:00')NEWVALUE FROM DUAL;

Output:

oracle date function 10

12. NEW_TIME()

This function converts a date from one time zone to a different time zone.

Syntax:

NEW_TIME(date, from_timezone, new_timezone)

Parameters:

date: It refers to the date which we want to convert.

from_timezone: It refers to the time zone of the date.

new_timezone: It refers to the time zone to which we want to convert.

Code:

SELECT NEW_TIME( sysdate, 'PST', 'AST' ) TIME_IN_AST FROM DUAL;

Output:

oracle date function 11

13. ROUND

This function rounds the date to a specific format.

Syntax:
ROUND(date, format)

Parameters:

date: It represents the date which we want to round.

format: It represents the format to which we want to round.

Example:

In this example we will round the current date 01-May-2020 20:27:15 to nearest date.

Code:

SELECT TO_CHAR( ROUND( TO_DATE( '01-May-2020 20:27:15', 'DD-Mon-YYYY HH24:MI:SS' ) ),

'DD-Mon-YYYY HH24:MI:SS' ) rounded_date

FROM

dual;

Output:

oracle date function 12

14. SESSIONTIMEZONE

This function as the name suggest returns the time zone of the current working session.

Syntax:

SESSIONTIMEZONE

Example:

To get the time zone of the current working session.

Code:

SELECT SESSIONTIMEZONE FROM dual;

Output:

oracle date function

15. SYSTIMESTAMP

This function represents a timestamp with a time zone. It displays the result up to fractional seconds.

Syntax:

SYSTIMESTAMP

Example:

In this example we will try to get the system timestamp.

Code:

SELECT SYSTIMESTAMP FROM dual;

Output:

oracle date function

16. TRUNC

This function returns a date value truncated to a specific format/unit.

Syntax:
TRUNC(date, format)

Parameters:

date: It represents the date value which is to be truncated.

format: It refers to the unit to which the date value will be truncated.

Example:

To get the first day of the current month.

Code:

SELECT TRUNC( SYSDATE, 'MM' ) MONTH FROM dual;

Output:

oracle date function 15JPG

17. TZ_OFFSET

This function returns offset of a time zone name from UTC.

Syntax:

TZ_OFFSET(value)

Parameter:

value: It refers to a valid time zone.

Example:

We will get the offset of time zone ‘Asia/Kolkata.

Code:

SELECT TZ_OFFSET('Asia/Kolkata') OFFSET FROM DUAL;

Output:

TZ_OFFSET

Introduction To Oracle Strings

Functions
Oracle has several functions to operate on string characters. Some of which

are ‘Char’ to convert a number into a character, ‘Locate’ to locate a letter or

a word in a string set, ‘Space’ to leave a blank space, ‘Length’ to get the

number of characters in a string, ‘Replace’ to replace a word or a letter,

‘TRIM’ to remove a letter or a word from the start or end of a string, etc.

Features of Oracle String Function

An oracle string function has special key features that are as under:

1. Contains
Contain String function followed by a pattern like >0; this means that for

the particular row which was selected, the calculated score value greater

than Zero.

Example: contains (text, ‘function’)>0

2. Equals
The equal string function comes into use to examine equality and to get an

exact match which returns to a true value.

Example: Equals (text = ‘function’)

3. Ends with
This method finds the new value, which contains a string from starting.

Example: Ends with (<suffix>)

4. Starts with
This method gets the new value contains a starting string.

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Example: Starts with(<prefix>)

5. EqualsignoreCase
The equal sign or case function is for comparing a particular string to

others by ignoring the considerations of the case.

Example: EqualsIgnoreCase (String other string)

6. IsEmpty
The isEmpty function is come into use for the string to verify that the length

() is zero.

Example: IsEmpty ()

7. Matches
The matches function is all about particular string matches with the

regex(regular expression).

Example: Text.matches(regex,string)

8. Replace
Replace function is all about the string search-replace with string

replacement in order to get char.

Example: Replace (char,<search string>,<replacement string>)

9. ReplaceAll
This Function is used to replaces all substring of the string which matches

the given regex with the given replacement.

Example: ReplaceAll(<oldvalregex>,<newal>

10. Split
Splits the string around matches that given regular expression.

Example: Text.Split(<regexpattern>

String valuation consists of different parameter areas

 For the variable during field validation: new value

 Parameter name used to reclaim the value of the field after the form

is submitted: old value

 Before stored value during field validation, the variable names would

be used instead of me string var

Oracle functions are sorted under different categories, and the string is of

them. It can be used in SQL statements or questions of Oracle,

programming environment of Oracle database such as saved triggers,

functions and the procedures, etc. This article explains the fundamentals of

the string functions. String functions are ASCII, ASCIISTR, CHR, COMPOSE,
CONCAT, CONVERT, LENGTH 4, LENGTHB, LENGTHC, LOWER, LPAD, LTRIM,

NCHR, REGEXP INSTR, VSIZE, REGEXP, REPLACE, REGEXP SUBSTR, RPAD,

SOUNDEX, RTRIM, SUBSTR, TRIM, TRANSLATE, UPPER. The string functions

used in programming culture, which help in smooth functioning.

Common Oracle String Functions

Below are the most common Oracle string functions which help in

manipulating the string character effectively.

1. ASCII: The ASCII code comparable to the one character in the expression

return.

Example: ASCII (‘a’)

2. Bit_Length: Return length in bits of a particular string; each Unicode

value of the character is 2bytes in length (equal to 16bits)

Example: Bit_Length (‘abcdef’)

3. Char; It converts a numeric value to the analogous ASCII Character code.

Example: Char (35)

4. Char_Length: Blanks are not counted in string length. Return length in

the number of characters of a particular string.

Example: Char_Length

5. Concat: Concat string function allows a particular string at one end and

back to the same string.

Example: Concat (‘text a’). concat (‘text b’)

6. Insert: A specified string character into a particular location in other

string characters.

Example: select insert (‘123456’),2, 3, ‘abcd’

7. Left: Specified number of character from the left of a string

Example: select left (‘123456’, 3)

8. Length: Return the length, number of character of a particular string. The

length is returned to exclude any blank characters.

Example: Length (Customer_Name)

9. Locate: This function comes into use to search string in other string, but

it is not found the string it returns to its original index that is 0.

Example: Locate (‘d’ ‘abcdef’)

10. LocateN: Return the numeric position of a string character in other

character string. This includes an integer that enables to specify an initial

position to start the search.

Example: Locate (‘d’, ‘abcdef’,3)

11. Lower: This converts a string character to lowercase

Example: Lower(Customer_Name)

12. Ortet_Length: Return a number of bytes of a particular string.

Example: Octet_Length (‘abcdef’)

13. Position; This function comes into use to find a substring from a string

and search the location of the string in the substring. The function return to

the position of starting character when the substring is equal to the found

substring.
Example: Position (‘d’, ‘abcdef’)

14. Repeat: Repeat a particular expression pie times.

Example: Repeat (‘abc’,4)

15. Replace: Replace one or more character from a particular character

expression with one or more characters.

Example: Replace (‘abc1234’, ‘123’ ,‘zz’)

16. Right: Return a particular number of characters from the right of the

string.

Example: SELECT Right (‘123456’,3)

17. Space: Insert blank space

Example: Space (2)

18. Substring: This function permits you to excerpt substring from the

original string.

Example: Substring (‘abcdef’)

19. SubstringN: SubstringN help you to get the length of the string, which

includes an integer in the character number.

Example: Substring (‘abcdef’)

20. TrimBoth: Particular strips leading & trailing character from a character

string.

Example: Trim (Both ‘_’ From ‘abcdef’)

21. TrimLeading: Particular strips leading characters from a character

string.

Example: Trim (LEADING ‘_’ From ‘_abcdef_’)

22. Trim Trailing: Particular trailing characters from a character string.

Example: Trim (TRAILING ‘_’ From ‘abcdef_’)

23. Upper: It converts a string character to uppercase

Example: Upper (Cutomer_Name)