TO_CHAR - Amazon Redshift
SyntaxArgumentsReturn typeExamples

TO_CHAR

TO_CHAR converts a timestamp or numeric expression to a character-string data format.

Syntax

TO_CHAR (timestamp_expression | numeric_expression , 'format')

Arguments

timestamp_expression

An expression that results in a TIMESTAMP or TIMESTAMPTZ type value or a value that can implicitly be coerced to a timestamp.

numeric_expression

An expression that results in a numeric data type value or a value that can implicitly be coerced to a numeric type. For more information, see Numeric types. TO_CHAR inserts a space to the left of the numeral string.

Note

TO_CHAR does not support 128-bit DECIMAL values.

format

The format for the new value. For valid formats, see Datetime format strings and Numeric format strings.

Return type

VARCHAR

Examples

The following example converts a timestamp to a value with the date and time in a format with the name of the month padded to nine characters, the name of the day of the week, and the day number of the month.

select to_char(timestamp '2009-12-31 23:15:59', 'MONTH-DY-DD-YYYY HH12:MIPM');

to_char
-------------------------
DECEMBER -THU-31-2009 11:15PM

The following example converts a timestamp to a value with day number of the year.

select to_char(timestamp '2009-12-31 23:15:59', 'DDD');

to_char
-------------------------
365

The following example converts a timestamp to an ISO day number of the week.

select to_char(timestamp '2022-05-16 23:15:59', 'ID');

to_char
-------------------------
1

The following example extracts the month name from a date.

select to_char(date '2009-12-31', 'MONTH');

to_char
-------------------------
DECEMBER

The following example converts each STARTTIME value in the EVENT table to a string that consists of hours, minutes, and seconds.

select to_char(starttime, 'HH12:MI:SS')
from event where eventid between 1 and 5
order by eventid;

to_char
----------
02:30:00
08:00:00
02:30:00
02:30:00
07:00:00

The following example converts an entire timestamp value into a different format.

select starttime, to_char(starttime, 'MON-DD-YYYY HH12:MIPM')
from event where eventid=1;

      starttime      |       to_char
---------------------+---------------------
 2008-01-25 14:30:00 | JAN-25-2008 02:30PM

The following example converts a timestamp literal to a character string.

select to_char(timestamp '2009-12-31 23:15:59','HH24:MI:SS');

to_char
----------
23:15:59

The following example converts a decimal number to a character string.

select to_char(125.8, '999.99');

to_char
---------
125.80

The following example converts a decimal number to a character string.

select to_char(125.8, '999D99');

to_char
---------
125.80

The following example converts a number to a character string with a leading zero.

select to_char(125.8, '0999D99');

to_char
---------
0125.80

The following example converts a number to a character string with the negative sign at the end.

select to_char(-125.8, '999D99S');

to_char
---------
125.80-

The following example converts a number to a character string with the positive or negative sign at the specified position.

select to_char(125.8, '999D99SG');

to_char
---------
125.80+

The following example converts a number to a character string with the positive sign at the specified position.

select to_char(125.8, 'PL999D99');

to_char
---------
+ 125.80

The following example converts a number to a character string with the currency symbol.

select to_char(-125.88, '$S999D99');

to_char
---------
$-125.88

The following example converts a number to a character string with the currency symbol in the specified position.

select to_char(-125.88, 'S999D99L');

to_char
---------
-125.88$

The following example converts a number to a character string using a thousands (comma) separator.

select to_char(1125.8, '9,999.99');

to_char
---------
1,125.80

The following example converts a number to a character string using angle brackets for negative numbers.

select to_char(-125.88, '$999D99PR');

to_char
---------
$<125.88>

The following example converts a number to a Roman numeral string.

select to_char(125, 'RN');

to_char
---------
   CXXV

The following example converts a date to a century code.

select to_char(date '2020-12-31', 'CC');

to_char
---------
21

The following example displays the day of the week.

SELECT to_char(current_timestamp, 'FMDay, FMDD HH12:MI:SS');

to_char
-----------------------
Wednesday, 31 09:34:26

The following example displays the ordinal number suffix for a number.

SELECT to_char(482, '999th');

to_char
-----------------------
 482nd

The following example subtracts the commission from the price paid in the sales table. The difference is then rounded up and converted to a roman numeral, shown in the to_char column: 

select salesid, pricepaid, commission, (pricepaid - commission)
as difference, to_char(pricepaid - commission, 'rn') from sales
group by sales.pricepaid, sales.commission, salesid
order by salesid limit 10;

 salesid | pricepaid | commission | difference |     to_char
---------+-----------+------------+------------+-----------------
       1 |    728.00 |     109.20 |     618.80 |           dcxix
       2 |     76.00 |      11.40 |      64.60 |             lxv
       3 |    350.00 |      52.50 |     297.50 |        ccxcviii
       4 |    175.00 |      26.25 |     148.75 |           cxlix
       5 |    154.00 |      23.10 |     130.90 |           cxxxi
       6 |    394.00 |      59.10 |     334.90 |         cccxxxv
       7 |    788.00 |     118.20 |     669.80 |           dclxx
       8 |    197.00 |      29.55 |     167.45 |          clxvii
       9 |    591.00 |      88.65 |     502.35 |             dii
      10 |     65.00 |       9.75 |      55.25 |              lv

The following example adds the currency symbol to the difference values shown in the to_char column: 

select salesid, pricepaid, commission, (pricepaid - commission)
as difference, to_char(pricepaid - commission, 'l99999D99') from sales
group by sales.pricepaid, sales.commission, salesid
order by salesid limit 10;

salesid | pricepaid | commission | difference |  to_char
--------+-----------+------------+------------+------------
      1 |    728.00 |     109.20 |     618.80 | $   618.80
      2 |     76.00 |      11.40 |      64.60 | $    64.60
      3 |    350.00 |      52.50 |     297.50 | $   297.50
      4 |    175.00 |      26.25 |     148.75 | $   148.75
      5 |    154.00 |      23.10 |     130.90 | $   130.90
      6 |    394.00 |      59.10 |     334.90 | $   334.90
      7 |    788.00 |     118.20 |     669.80 | $   669.80
      8 |    197.00 |      29.55 |     167.45 | $   167.45
      9 |    591.00 |      88.65 |     502.35 | $   502.35
     10 |     65.00 |       9.75 |      55.25 | $    55.25

The following example lists the century in which each sale was made. 

select salesid, saletime, to_char(saletime, 'cc') from sales
order by salesid limit 10;

 salesid |      saletime       | to_char
---------+---------------------+---------
       1 | 2008-02-18 02:36:48 | 21
       2 | 2008-06-06 05:00:16 | 21
       3 | 2008-06-06 08:26:17 | 21
       4 | 2008-06-09 08:38:52 | 21
       5 | 2008-08-31 09:17:02 | 21
       6 | 2008-07-16 11:59:24 | 21
       7 | 2008-06-26 12:56:06 | 21
       8 | 2008-07-10 02:12:36 | 21
       9 | 2008-07-22 02:23:17 | 21
      10 | 2008-08-06 02:51:55 | 21

The following example converts each STARTTIME value in the EVENT table to a string that consists of hours, minutes, seconds, and time zone. 

select to_char(starttime, 'HH12:MI:SS TZ')
from event where eventid between 1 and 5
order by eventid;

to_char
----------
02:30:00 UTC
08:00:00 UTC
02:30:00 UTC
02:30:00 UTC
07:00:00 UTC

The following example shows formatting for seconds, milliseconds, and microseconds.

select sysdate,
to_char(sysdate, 'HH24:MI:SS') as seconds,
to_char(sysdate, 'HH24:MI:SS.MS') as milliseconds,
to_char(sysdate, 'HH24:MI:SS:US') as microseconds;

timestamp           | seconds  | milliseconds | microseconds   
--------------------+----------+--------------+----------------
2015-04-10 18:45:09 | 18:45:09 | 18:45:09.325 | 18:45:09:325143