Formatting Oracle "DATE" as Timestamp

reagent

Ok,
I'm having a horrible time finding out this information. I know that mysql will allow me to do date_format(..) to format a date as a timestamp, but I have not found how to do this with oracle 8. I looked into the TO_DATE() and TO_CHAR() functions, and haven't been able to come up with anything.

any suggestions?
thanks.
p.

steved

What are you trying to do with the date? Select it out of the database? Insert it into the database? Why do you need a timestamp?

reagent

I'm selecting it from the table. I want a timestamp from oracle so that I can use date() with that timestamp. This will allow me to manipulate dates more easily in code..

I am used to mysql being able to do UNIX_TIMESTAMP(date), but is there an equivalent function in oracle?

right now, i am just using strtotime() with the date that oracle returns, but I don't think this is a great solution.

steved

I think your best (only?) solution is to use the to_char() function to format the date when you select it from the oracle table. Then, continue to use the strtotime() function to get it into the PHP timestamp format.