Timestamp format

[ggnanaraj]

As cjard said, you have to understand that dates and timestamps are stored in an internal format, NOT STRINGS, strings are just for DISPLAY. SO ALWAYS CONVERT EXPLICITLY :

Thanks for the input.

The idea is to maintain the storage/display formats of TIMESTAMP - externally - without change to already existing application code, which is to be moved to work on Oracle. I'm not concerned about how it is stored internally. The timestamp format expected when doing a SELECT or INSERT is 2006-08-21-16.37.30.459999.

The 'definition of the table can be altered to a certain extent with respect to defaults' and so can the 'session settings' but code is to be changed only if the previous 2 cannot handle the requirement.

Given this requirement, the issue can be resolved only by use of session applicable code as follows:

alter session SET NLS_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT='YYYY-MM-DD-HH24.MI.SS.FF';

Thanks & Regards.

ggnanaraj