SQL Developer – Date Format

You are on SQL Developer and have a date-time column, you run a query and it only displays the date. You could do a “to_char(mydatefield,’MM/DD/YYYY hh24:mi:ss’) ” but then you will have to do it for ALL date fields and change all your saved queries.

You wish there was something in SQL-Developer that would apply this globally. Well there is, goto Tools->Preferences -> NLS

Now you have to set the Date Format on the right ….so what is it? “DD-MON-RR”  or “DD-MON-RRRR” or  “DD-MON-RR HH24.MI.SSXFF AM” or something more obscure to display your dates with times on them?

It turns out,  you can use anything as long as you specify the right time format “DD-MON-RR HH.MI.SSXFF AM” or “DD-MON-RR HH.MI.SS AM” or “MM/DD/RRRR HH.MI.SS AM” as shown above.