UNABLE to change NLS_DATE_FORMAT. Please HELP

[quester]

I am using Oracle 9i and am issuing this command -

alter system set nls_date_format = 'YYYY/MM/DD';

I have logged in through SQL PLUS as - Conn SYS as SYSDBA.

I am getting the the following error:

ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02096: specified initialization parameter is not modifiable with this option


I even tried -

alter database set nls_date_format = 'YYYY/MM/DD';

It gives the following error -


ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02231: missing or invalid option to ALTER DATABASE



Please help, as I need to change the date format at the database level.

[quester]

I know I can set the parameter in the InitSID.Ora file and restart the database; I want to avoid this and would like to do this at the command level. Please help.

[bensr]

In this case you can only do:
ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT = 'YYYY/MM/DD';
=======

[eeswar]

Still if you want this to appear in client m/c's as well, then you have to edit the registry settings to change the NLS_DATE_FORMAT in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE. This will always take priority over the server settings.

[quester]

Originally posted by eeswar
Still if you want this to appear in client m/c's as well, then you have to edit the registry settings to change the NLS_DATE_FORMAT in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE. This will always take priority over the server settings.

This only applies on the local machine, right? Not for the entire server....in which case alter session can do. I needed to change on the database level, not on the local machine or session.

[SANJAY_G]

Originally posted by quester
This only applies on the local machine, right? Not for the entire server....in which case alter session can do. I needed to change on the database level, not on the local machine or session.

At database level, modify init.ora and bounce the instance. You can't change it on fly.

Sanjay

[Orca777]

Hi,
I tried this too : ALTER SYYTEM ...
But you cannot do this because Oracle should not and cannot
change the behavior of the date-format in running sessions!
The result would be not consistent.

Orca

[saurabhg29]

From the Oracle DOCS

NLS_DATE_FORMAT
Parameter type String

Syntax NLS_DATE_FORMAT = "format"

Default value Derived from NLS_TERRITORY

Parameter class Dynamic: ALTER SESSION

Range of values Any valid date format mask but not exceeding a fixed length




NLS_DATE_FORMAT specifies the default date format to use with the TO_CHAR and TO_DATE functions. The default value of this parameter is determined by NLS_TERRITORY.

The value of this parameter can be any valid date format mask, and the value must be surrounded by double quotation marks. For example:

NLS_DATE_FORMAT = "MM/DD/YYYY"

You can change the session but on system..