TO_DATE converts a string to a DATE.
The string argument can be a CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2 data type.
The format argument can be any valid date format.
You can also specify the NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE parameter to change the language for month and day names.
Example:
SELECT TO_DATE(’23-0CT-04′,’dd/mm/rrrr’) as RESULT FROM DUAL;
RESULT
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23/10/2004
To_date – Oracle SQL Function