Simple Oracle query: literal does not match format string

Question

I want to execute a simple function in Oracle. The signature is defined as follows:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION NewCaseListForValidation
(
                             p_fromDate in DATE,
                             p_toDate in DATE,
                             p_rowCount in INT
)
RETURN
                             SYS_REFCURSOR
IS
                             return_value SYS_REFCURSOR;
...

I should be able to execute it with:

var rc refcursor
exec :rc := newcaselistforvalidation('2010-01-01','2011-01-01',100);
print :rc

But when typing "newcaselistforvalidation('2010-01-01','2011-01-01',100)", I get:

ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01861: literal does not match format string
ORA-06512: at line 1

I googled a bit and it seems I can't figure out to type the date in a correct format. Can anyone help me?

Answer 1

Query NLS_PARAMETERS in Oracle- you will then be able to see what format your DB is accepting dates in.

Typically however i use the to_date() function:

to_date('01-01-2011','DD-MM-YYYY');

In the UK to input my dates.

Answer 2

An alternative to the to_date() function is to use the ANSI standard format for DATE or TIMESTAMP literals:

DATE '2010-01-31'
TIMESTAMP '2010-01-31 21:22:23'

Date and time is always specified using ISO rules (YYYY-MM-DD and 24hour format for time)

This also works on a lot of other (standard compliant) DBMS.

Answer 3

It's best not to rely on particular value in NLS_PARAMETERS settings, cause this will make your function break in the env with another NLS_DATE_FORMAT.

I'd explicitly specify date formatting in your function as suggested in the answer above

exec :rc := newcaselistforvalidation(to_date('2010-01-01','YYYY-MM-DD'),to_date('2011-01-01','YYYY-MM-DD'),100);

Answer 4

INSERT INTO tblDate (dateStart) Values ('20-JUN-2013'); If you change month integer into a string 'DD-MON-YYYY' works as a valid data string without having to preface it with the DATE identifier.