Last_day & Next_day

[mozart]

Why does the top one work yet the bottom one doesen't?

SELECT LAST_DAY(TO_DATE(Add_months(SYSDATE, -1))) FROM dual

SELECT NEXT_DAY(TO_DATE(Add_months(SYSDATE, -3))) FROM dual


basically i want to be able to find the first date of a given month given the current date.

[jmodic]

You need to check the manuals to see how NEXT_DAY function works - it doesn't work like you currently think it does!

As for getting the first day of the month for a given date, one (of the many) method is:

SELECT TRUNC(:date,'MM') FROM dual;

[slimdave]

Also, the TO_DATE() function is redundant in your code.