Valid Date Checks in Oracle

Question

I have a date value (either valid date or invalid date) store in varchar format. Is it possible to check the date is valid or not in sql query.

Answer 1

Yes, if you know the format and with little plsql.

Let's say you have the date in format 'yyyy-mon-dd hh24:mi:ss'.

create function test_date(d varchar2) return varchar2
is
  v_date date;
begin
  select to_date(d,'yyyy-mon-dd hh24:mi:ss') into v_date from dual;
  return 'Valid';
  exception when others then return 'Invalid';
end;

Now you can:

select your_date_col, test_date(your_date_col)
from your_table;