how to alter the date format of the table

Eg: how to store the date in the format JANUARY 10,1975

in sqlplus
ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT = ''Month dd,YYYY''
in form
 forms_ddl('ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT = ''DD/MM/YYYY''');


Waheed rashwan

thank you Waheed Rashwan for the post but ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT does not permanently affect the permanent date storage for a particular table to be viewed in the format whenever it is opened..it merely affects the temporary way to view the format in that format..does anybody know how to alter/insert the date in a particular format so that it is permanently stored in the table in that format,,be it other than the default date format set for the system.

Oracle will always store DATE data in a packed binary format. This is handy for computers to use, but incomprehensible to applications. It is impossible to change the way Oracle stores a date.

It is the job of the client application, like SQL*Plus, to turn this binary data into a format that is comprehensible to the user. Oracle's tools will use NLS_DATE_FORMAT to determine how to display dates by default, though you can always use TO_CHAR to do an explicit format. NLS_DATE_FORMAT can be set at the session level, at the client level by setting an environment variable, or at the database level, by changing the initialization parameter. Individual sessions, however, can always override client and database level settings. Additionally, non-Oracle tools will generally not use NLS_DATE_FORMAT and will end up using their own date format.

Justin
Distributed Database Consulting, Inc.
http://www.ddbcinc.com/askDDBC

when i try to user imp80 this messeage be declare imp-00000