Convert a String with a date valus for Oracle

[Reggie McDougal]

How do I take a date entered into a text field and add it to the database as a date format so I can query it.

e.g. (European) 12/01/2005

what API's are available for Oracle to format from a String to a proper date format?

If some one has code example.

Reg

[Avi Abrami]

Reggie,
As requested. Note, however, that the below code is uncompiled, and untested.
It is also not really complete. It is intended only as a guide -- to get you started (with your homework assignment?)

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.PreparedStatement;
 
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
 
public class ForReggie {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
    java.util.Date d = sdf.parse("12/01/2005");
    java.sql.Date sqlDate = new java.sql.Date(d.getTime());
    String sql = "update TAB set COL = ?";
    Connection c = // However you obtain it.
    PreparedStatement ps = c.prepareStatement(sql);
    ps.setDate(sqlDate);
    ps.executeUpdate();
  }
}

Good Luck,
Avi.

[Jeremy Wilson]

Using the jdbc interface all you need to pass is the java object for date or timestamp whichever is applicable. If you are passing a string to an oracle procedure or function that depends on the NLS_DATE_FORMAT database parameter. This can be modified for a session using the ALTER SESSION command.

[Reggie McDougal]

Thanks, thanks what I needed to know

Reg

[Reggie McDougal]

This works fine, rather than use the API the oracle format is simpler
is there any disadvantage to this method?

Reg

 
sql = "UPDATE product SET name = '"+productName+"', description = '"+description+"', 
long_description = '"+longDescription+"', active_from = to_date('"+activeFrom+"','dd/MM/yy'), 
active_to = to_date('"+activeTo+"','dd/MM/yy') WHERE product_id = "+ productID;
 

[edited to add line breaks so page doesn't scroll right]
[ January 19, 2005: Message edited by: Jeanne Boyarsky ]

[Paul Sturrock]

Yes. By parsing your date string in SQL, you tie your JDBC code to Oracle, rather than leaving it database independant as it would be if you parsed the date in your Java code. Also you tie your date parsing to one Locale. By convention dates are described differently depending on where you are in the world (for example, typically Americans put the month before the day, while the British put the day before the month). If you parse your date in Java you can swap the formatting rules depending on Locale, but you can't do this in SQL.
[ January 19, 2005: Message edited by: Paul Sturrock ]