understanding this timestamp

[aot2002]

im getting an error
Warning: ociexecute() [function.ociexecute]: ORA-01840: input value not long enough for date format ORA-06512:

although im not very familiar with this i understand that its either too long or too short? i've tried this in many formats

heres my to_timestamp
to_timestamp('17-MAY-08 06.39.44.6157 AM','DD-MON-RRHH.MI.SSXFF AM')

the table column is timestamp(4)

[gandolf989]

I hope you aren't storing a timestamp as a full blown string. Especially considering that a date field is 7 bytes. It's a compressed format. Try the following. If it doesn't work start with the date portion and start adding to it. Remember the date has to exactly match the format.

to_timestamp('17-MAY-08 06.39.44.6157 AM','DD-MON-RR HH.MI.SSXFF AM')

[aot2002]

timestamp(4) is the type on my record_update_ts field