The Oracle PL/SQL TO_TIMESTAMP function is a built-in function that converts a string in a specific format to a timestamp data type. This function is often used when working with date and time values in Oracle databases, and it is especially useful when working with data that is stored as strings.
Syntax
The syntax for the TO_TIMESTAMP function is as follows:
TO_TIMESTAMP(string, format)
Where “string” is the string that you want to convert to a timestamp, and “format” is the format of the string. The format parameter is optional, and if it is not specified, the function will use the default format, which is ‘YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS.FF’.
Example
Here is an example of how to use the TO_TIMESTAMP function to convert a string to a timestamp:
SELECT
TO_TIMESTAMP('2022-04-08 10:30:00.000000', 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS.FF') AS timestamp_value
FROM dual;
This query will return a timestamp value that represents the date and time ‘2022-04-08 10:30:00.000000’.
Note that the format parameter is case-sensitive and must match the case of the format in the input string. Also, the format string must match the input string exactly, including the use of separators such as dashes and colons.
In addition to the TO_TIMESTAMP function, Oracle also provides several other date and time conversion functions, such as TO_DATE and TO_CHAR. These functions can be used together to convert between different date and time formats and data types.