pl/sql: select into date is wrong format

[sprevost]

I have a column defined as date with values such as 1/1/2007. If I select that column INTO a local date var, it becomes 1/1/07.

I also tried selecting it into a varchar2 column and using to_date(var,'mm/dd/yyyy') but that also yielded 1/1/07.

If I do a plain select (outside pl/sql) the column will display as 1/1/2007.

How can I force the local var to be mm/dd/yyyy? thanks!

Steve