Question

While the below code prints ‘Wrong Thursday’,(10-FEB is a Thursday)

BEGIN
  IF to_char(to_date('10-FEB-2011','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Day')='Thursday' THEN
    dbms_output.put_line('Correct');

  ELSE
    dbms_output.put_line('Wrong '||to_char(to_date('10-FEB-2011','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Day'));
  END IF;
END;

The following prints ‘Correct’,(09-FEB is a Wednesday)

BEGIN
  IF to_char(to_date('09-FEB-2011','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Day')='Wednesday' THEN
    dbms_output.put_line('Correct');

  ELSE
    dbms_output.put_line('Wrong '||to_char(to_date('09-FEB-2011','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Day'));
  END IF;
END;

I’ve been trying to figure this out but I couldn’t. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

to_char by default is space-padded:

SQL> BEGIN
  2    dbms_output.put_line('x' ||
  3                         to_char(to_date('10-FEB-2011','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Day')||
  4                         'x');
  5  END;
  6  /

xThursday x

Use the modifier fm to prevent the padding:

SQL> BEGIN
  2    IF to_char(to_date('10-FEB-2011','DD-MON-YYYY'),'fmDay')='Thursday' THEN
  3      dbms_output.put_line('Correct');
  4    ELSE
  5      dbms_output.put_line('Wrong '||to_char(to_date('10-FEB-2011','DD-MON-YYYY'),'fmDay'));
  6    END IF;
  7  END;
  8  /

Correct

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed