I tested out function "to_date" as you see below and I see that Oracle allows me to give to that function parameter with textual data type and also allows to parameter's datatype to be Date.
Connected to Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0
SQL>
SQL> select to_date(sysdate) as s from dual;--21.10.2010
S
-----------
21.10.2010
SQL> select to_date(sysdate, 'DD.MM.YYYY') as s from dual;--21.10.2010
S
-----------
21.10.2010
SQL> select to_date('21.10.2010', 'DD.MM.YYYY') as s from dual;--21.10.2010
S
-----------
21.10.2010
SQL> select to_date(to_date('21.10.2010', 'DD.MM.YYYY')) as s from dual;--21.10.2010
S
-----------
21.10.2010
SQL>
I entered into Search engine "http://www.lycos.com/" phrase "oracle to_date function" and it gave me link to documentation of that function:
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14200/functions183.htm
and the documentation says:
>
Purpose
TO_DATE converts char of CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2 datatype to a value of DATE datatype.
>
My question is: why the function accepts Date data types? what occures behind curtains when Date is passed in? Or what explanation there is, that documentation seems to lie?
Also, have you too noticed that the forum has been oftenly down near past days?