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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-05T06:13:06+00:00

How do I convert these number columns (timestamp, event_dt) to a date or time

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How do I convert these number columns (timestamp, event_dt) to a date or time mask?
I am trying this:

    select to_char(timestamp,'YYYY-MON-DD HH24:MI:SS'), domain_c, to_char(event_date,'YYYY-MON-DD HH24:MI:SS'), total_reads from TOP_READ_EVENTS where timestamp= to_char(sysdate-2,'yyyymmdd') || '0000'
                         *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01481: invalid number format model


SQL> desc top_read_events;
 Name                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 YEAR                           NUMBER
 QUARTER                        NUMBER
 MONTH                          NUMBER
 DAY                            NUMBER
 HOUR                           NUMBER
 TIMESTAMP                      NUMBER
 DOMAIN_C                       VARCHAR2(255)
 EVENT_DT                       NUMBER
 TOTAL_READS                        NUMBER




select timestamp, domain_c, event_dt, total_reads from TOP_READ_EVENTS where timestamp= to_char(sysdate-2,'yyyymmdd') || '0000'    

 TIMESTAMP DOMAIN_C              EVENT_DT  TOTAL_READS
---------- ------------------------------  ------------ -------------
2.0111E+11 b.e.att-mail.com         2.0111E+11         14406
2.0111E+11 bounce.emailinfo2.bestbuy.com    2.0111E+11         14156
2.0111E+11 bounce.bluestatedigital.com      2.0111E+11         13701
2.0111E+11 plentyoffish.com         2.0111E+11         13384
2.0111E+11 mail.classmates.com          2.0111E+11         13281
2.0111E+11 comcast.net              2.0111E+11         13241
2.0111E+11 uniquelistsmail.com          2.0111E+11         13135
2.0111E+11 tankgorilla.com          2.0111E+11         12835
2.0111E+11 frigidphoenix.com            2.0111E+11         12657
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Firstly, never store date or timestamp data-types in anything but a date or timestamp column. It causes no end of pain; as you’re gathering.

    As your “timestamps” have 11 orders of magnitude I’m going to guess that you inserted them in the form yyyymmddhh24mi, and that they’re not seconds since an unspecified epoch or anything like that.

    If you want to convert this then you have to firstly convert them into a character, then into a date. You don’t actually need a timestamp as these differ from dates only in fractional seconds.

    It’d look something like the following:

    select to_date(to_char(timestamp),'yyyymmddhh24mi') as my_timestamp
  from top_read_events

    On a side note never call a column timestamp, date, group or another reserved word. It causes too many problems. Personally I normally go for “tstamp” but that’s just personal preference.

    If you want to convert your “timestamp” into a character you’d then have to convert it into a character again.

    select to_char(to_date(to_char(timestamp)
                       ,'yyyymmddhh24mi')
              ,'yyyy-mon-dd hh24:mi:ss') as my_timestamp
  from top_read_events

    The seconds will always be 00 as you don’t have these. Note that I only use explicit number to character to date to character conversion. It makes it more obvious to the coders who come after you what you’re doing, including yourself 2 years down the line, and there’s no chance of the interpreter making a mistake over intention and comparing a number to a character etc.

    For this reason I’d definitely change where timestamp= to_char(sysdate-2,'yyyymmdd') || '0000'. As you want to date comparison change this into a date and to it that way, i.e.

    where trunc(to_date(to_char(timestamp),'yyyymmddhh24mi'),'dd') = trunc(sysdate -2)

    trunc() truncates this at the day level in this instance.

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