Commented by: ramengo (ramengo)

I was thinking to "to_char" command in Oracle, where you can do:
select to_char(sysdate, 'dd-mon-yyyy') from dual
obtaining:
'09-aug-2007'

Is it possible to have a similar behaviour in FB ?

Commented by: @asfernandes

I would prefer a generic FORMAT function, but this requires we return strings of unknown (at prepare time) length, and we don't support this yet.

Commented by: ramengo (ramengo)

I see.
BTW, the "format" function would be good for numeric columns too (eg: formatting number with different decimal separator from "."). Actually I have to use replace of cast...
Hope the limitation of unknown length string will be resolved soon !
Keep up the good work guys.

Commented by: ramengo (ramengo)

Hey, I just want to follow the invite of the Firebird homepage: "Is there a feature you would like to request?"... hehehe
Well, could this "format" functionality be added to the next FB release ?
Thanks in advance !

Commented by: Mustafa Simsek (mussimsek)

Hi,

i vote for generic Format date-time funciton too.

FormatDateTime (format_string, date-time value) = formatted string

format_string could be general for other db & languages.

d - day(1-31)
dd - day (01-31)
m - month (1-12)
mm - month (01-12)
mmm (short month name : Jan-Feb...)
mmmm (month name : January...)
yy (year, two digit : 08)
yyyy (year, four digit : 2008)
etc.

Best Regards.

Commented by: Andre Litfin (andrelitfin)

What about this function? Will this function be integrated in FB 2.5?? At the moment I'm using an UDF, but it's better when it's integrated...

Commented by: ramengo (ramengo)

Hi,

if you implement this functionality into 2.5, then don't forget another similar to format numers.
In Oracle there is to_char which formats dates and numbers.

Example 1:
to_char(current_date, 'dd-mon-yyyy') returns 12-may-2008

Example 2:
to_char(123456.1, '999G999D00') returns 123,456.10

See http://www.dba-oracle.com/f_to_char_sql.htm
TIA.

Commented by: @asfernandes

I'm marking this as duplicate because it's better to have a unified format routine, as in CORE1314.