Progress
Internationalization Guide


Format Specifiers Allowed With the TO_CHAR and TO_DATE Functions

The format specifiers allowed by that the SQL-92 TO_CHAR() and TO_DATE() functions appear in Table 7–3.

Table 7–3: Format Specifiers Allowed With TO_CHAR() and
TO_DATE()
Format Specifier
Description
Comment
AM
Meridian indicator in the native language
Without periods
English only
A.M.
Meridian indicator in the native language
With periods
English only
CC
The century as a two-digit number
Computed as one greater than the first two digits of the four-digit year
Considers 1900 to be in the 20th century, 2000 to be in the 21st century, etc.
SCC
The century as a two-digit number.
Computed as one greater than the first two digits of the four-digit year
BC dates are prefixed by “-”
Considers 1900 to be in the 20th century, 2000 to be in the 21st century, etc.
D
The day of the week as a one-digit number between
1 and 7
DAY
The day of the week in the native language
Entire name in uppercase
English only
Day
The day of the week in the native language
First letter only in uppercase
English only
day
The day of the week in the native language
First letter only in uppercase
English only
DD
The day of the month as a two-digit number between 01 and 31
DDD
The day of the year as a three-digit number between 001 and 365
DY
The day of the week as a three-character string in the native language
English only
HH
The hour of the day as a two-digit number between 01 and 12
HH12
The hour of the day as a two-digit number between 01 and 12
Synonym of HH
HH24
The hour of the day as a two-digit number between 00 and 23
J
The Julian day
MI
The minute of the hour as a two-digit number between 0 and 59
MM
The month as a two-digit number between 01 and 12
MON
The first three characters of the name of the month in the native language
English only
MONTH
The first nine characters of the name of the month in the native language, right-padded with blanks
English only
PM
Meridian indicator in the native language
Without periods
English only
P.M.
Meridian indicator in the native language
With periods
English only
Q
The quarter of the year as a single digit between
1 and 4
SS
Seconds as a two-digit number between 00 and 59
SSSS
Seconds past midnight as a number between
0 and 86339
TH
Ordinal suffix appended to a number
Replaced by ST, ND, RD or TH depending on the last digit of the number
English only
W
The week of the month as a single digit between 1 and 5
WW
The week of the year as a two-digit number between 01 and 52
Y
The year as a single digit
YY
The year as a two-digit number
YYY
The year as a three-digit number
YYYY
The year as a four-digit number
Y,YYY
The year as a four-digit number
A comma separates the first digit from the other digits


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