
- •Preface
- •Introduction
- •Lesson Objectives
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Course Objectives
- •Course Agenda
- •Appendixes Used in the Course
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Oracle Database 11g: Focus Areas
- •Oracle Database 11g
- •Oracle Fusion Middleware
- •Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control 10g
- •Oracle BI Publisher
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Relational and Object Relational Database Management Systems
- •Data Storage on Different Media
- •Relational Database Concept
- •Definition of a Relational Database
- •Data Models
- •Entity Relationship Model
- •Relating Multiple Tables
- •Relational Database Terminology
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Using SQL to Query Your Database
- •SQL Statements
- •Development Environments for SQL
- •Lesson Agenda
- •The Human Resources (HR) Schema
- •Tables Used in the Course
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Oracle Database 11g Documentation
- •Additional Resources
- •Summary
- •Practice I: Overview
- •Objectives
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Capabilities of SQL SELECT Statements
- •Basic SELECT Statement
- •Selecting All Columns
- •Selecting Specific Columns
- •Writing SQL Statements
- •Column Heading Defaults
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Arithmetic Expressions
- •Using Arithmetic Operators
- •Operator Precedence
- •Defining a Null Value
- •Null Values in Arithmetic Expressions
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Defining a Column Alias
- •Using Column Aliases
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Concatenation Operator
- •Literal Character Strings
- •Using Literal Character Strings
- •Alternative Quote (q) Operator
- •Duplicate Rows
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Displaying the Table Structure
- •Using the DESCRIBE Command
- •Quiz
- •Summary
- •Practice 1: Overview
- •Objectives
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Limiting Rows Using a Selection
- •Limiting the Rows That Are Selected
- •Using the WHERE Clause
- •Character Strings and Dates
- •Comparison Operators
- •Using Comparison Operators
- •Range Conditions Using the BETWEEN Operator
- •Membership Condition Using the IN Operator
- •Pattern Matching Using the LIKE Operator
- •Combining Wildcard Characters
- •Using the NULL Conditions
- •Defining Conditions Using the Logical Operators
- •Using the AND Operator
- •Using the OR Operator
- •Using the NOT Operator
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Rules of Precedence
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Using the ORDER BY Clause
- •Sorting
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Substitution Variables
- •Using the Single-Ampersand Substitution Variable
- •Character and Date Values with Substitution Variables
- •Specifying Column Names, Expressions, and Text
- •Using the Double-Ampersand Substitution Variable
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Using the DEFINE Command
- •Using the VERIFY Command
- •Quiz
- •Summary
- •Practice 2: Overview
- •Objectives
- •Lesson Agenda
- •SQL Functions
- •Two Types of SQL Functions
- •Single-Row Functions
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Character Functions
- •Case-Conversion Functions
- •Using Case-Conversion Functions
- •Character-Manipulation Functions
- •Using the Character-Manipulation Functions
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Number Functions
- •Using the ROUND Function
- •Using the TRUNC Function
- •Using the MOD Function
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Working with Dates
- •RR Date Format
- •Using the SYSDATE Function
- •Arithmetic with Dates
- •Using Arithmetic Operators with Dates
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Date-Manipulation Functions
- •Using Date Functions
- •Using ROUND and TRUNC Functions with Dates
- •Quiz
- •Summary
- •Practice 3: Overview
- •Objectives
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Conversion Functions
- •Implicit Data Type Conversion
- •Explicit Data Type Conversion
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Using the TO_CHAR Function with Dates
- •Elements of the Date Format Model
- •Using the TO_CHAR Function with Dates
- •Using the TO_CHAR Function with Numbers
- •Using the TO_NUMBER and TO_DATE Functions
- •Using the TO_CHAR and TO_DATE Function with RR Date Format
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Nesting Functions
- •Lesson Agenda
- •General Functions
- •NVL Function
- •Using the NVL Function
- •Using the NVL2 Function
- •Using the NULLIF Function
- •Using the COALESCE Function
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Conditional Expressions
- •CASE Expression
- •Using the CASE Expression
- •DECODE Function
- •Using the DECODE Function
- •Quiz
- •Summary
- •Practice 4: Overview
- •Objectives
- •Lesson Agenda
- •What Are Group Functions?
- •Types of Group Functions
- •Group Functions: Syntax
- •Using the AVG and SUM Functions
- •Using the MIN and MAX Functions
- •Using the COUNT Function
- •Using the DISTINCT Keyword
- •Group Functions and Null Values
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Creating Groups of Data
- •Creating Groups of Data: GROUP BY Clause Syntax
- •Using the GROUP BY Clause
- •Grouping by More than One Column
- •Using the GROUP BY Clause on Multiple Columns
- •Illegal Queries Using Group Functions
- •Restricting Group Results
- •Restricting Group Results with the HAVING Clause
- •Using the HAVING Clause
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Nesting Group Functions
- •Quiz
- •Summary
- •Practice 5: Overview
- •Objectives
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Types of Joins
- •Joining Tables Using SQL:1999 Syntax
- •Qualifying Ambiguous Column Names
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Creating Natural Joins
- •Retrieving Records with Natural Joins
- •Creating Joins with the USING Clause
- •Joining Column Names
- •Retrieving Records with the USING Clause
- •Using Table Aliases with the USING Clause
- •Creating Joins with the ON Clause
- •Retrieving Records with the ON Clause
- •Creating Three-Way Joins with the ON Clause
- •Applying Additional Conditions to a Join
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Joining a Table to Itself
- •Self-Joins Using the ON Clause
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Nonequijoins
- •Retrieving Records with Nonequijoins
- •Lesson Agenda
- •INNER Versus OUTER Joins
- •LEFT OUTER JOIN
- •RIGHT OUTER JOIN
- •FULL OUTER JOIN
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Cartesian Products
- •Generating a Cartesian Product
- •Creating Cross Joins
- •Quiz
- •Summary
- •Practice 6: Overview
- •Objectives
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Using a Subquery to Solve a Problem
- •Subquery Syntax
- •Using a Subquery
- •Guidelines for Using Subqueries
- •Types of Subqueries
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Single-Row Subqueries
- •Executing Single-Row Subqueries
- •Using Group Functions in a Subquery
- •The HAVING Clause with Subqueries
- •What Is Wrong with This Statement?
- •No Rows Returned by the Inner Query
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Multiple-Row Subqueries
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Null Values in a Subquery
- •Quiz
- •Summary
- •Practice 7: Overview
- •Objectives
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Set Operators
- •Set Operator Guidelines
- •The Oracle Server and Set Operators
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Tables Used in This Lesson
- •Lesson Agenda
- •UNION Operator
- •Using the UNION Operator
- •UNION ALL Operator
- •Using the UNION ALL Operator
- •Lesson Agenda
- •INTERSECT Operator
- •Using the INTERSECT Operator
- •Lesson Agenda
- •MINUS Operator
- •Using the MINUS Operator
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Matching the SELECT Statements
- •Matching the SELECT Statement: Example
- •Lesson Agenda
- •Using the ORDER BY Clause in Set Operations
- •Quiz
- •Summary
- •Practice 8: Overview

Using the TO_NUMBER and TO_DATE Functions
•Convert a character string to a number format using the
TO_NUMBER function:
TO_NUMBER(char[, 'format_model'])
•Convert a character string to a date format using the TO_DATE function:
TO_DATE(char[, 'format_model'])
•These functions have an fx modifier. This modifier
specifies the exact match for the character argument and date format model of a TO_DATE function.
Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Using the TO_NUMBER and TO_DATE Functions |
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You may want to convert a character string to either a number or a date. To accomplish this task, use the TO_NUMBER or TO_DATE functions. The format model that you select is based on the
previously demonstrated format elements. |
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The fx modifier specifies the exact match for the character argument and date format model of a
TO _DATE function: |
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Punctuation and quoted text in the character&argume t must exactly match (except for case) the |
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corresponding parts of the form t model. |
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The character argument ca ot have extra blanks. Without fx, the Oracle server ignores extra |
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•Numeric data in the character argument must have the same number of digits as the corresponding eleme t in the format model. Without fx, the numbers in the character argument can omit l ading zeros.
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Oracle Database 11g: SQL Fundamentals I 4 - 20

Using the TO_NUMBER and TO_DATE Functions (continued)
Example:
Display the name and hire date for all employees who started on May 24, 1999. There are two spaces after the month May and before the number 24 in the following example. Because the fx modifier is
used, an exact match is required and the spaces after the word May are not recognized:
SELECT last_name, hire_date FROM employees
WHERE hire_date = TO_DATE('May 24, 1999', 'fxMonth DD, YYYY');
The resulting error output looks like this:
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Oracle Database 11g: SQL Fundamentals I 4 - 21

Using the TO_CHAR and TO_DATE Function
with RR Date Format
To find employees hired before 1990, use the RR date format, which produces the same results whether the command is run in 1999 or now:
SELECT last_name, TO_CHAR(hire_date, 'DD-Mon-YYYY') FROM employees
WHERE hire_date < TO_DATE('01-Jan-90','DD-Mon-RR');
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Using the TO_CHAR and TO_DATE Function with RR Date Format |
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To find employees who were hired before 1990, the RR format can be used. Because the current year |
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is greater than 1999, the RR format interprets the year portion of the date from 1950 to 1999. |
The following command, on the other hand, results in no ows being selected because the YY format |
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interprets the year portion of the date in the current century (2090). |
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last_name, TO_CHAR(hire date, 'DD-Mon-yyyy') |
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TO DATE(hire date, 'DD-Mon-yy') < '01-Jan-1990'; |
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Oracle Database 11g: SQL Fundamentals I 4 - 22

Lesson Agenda
•Implicit and explicit data type conversion
•TO_CHAR, TO_DATE, TO_NUMBER functions
•Nesting functions
•General functions:
–NVL
–NVL2
–NULLIF
–COALESCE
•Conditional expressions:
–CASE
–DECODE
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Oracle Database 11g: SQL Fundamentals I 4 - 23