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Question and Answer

Connor McDonald

Thanks for the question, Gopi.

Asked: August 25, 2016 - 6:37 pm UTC

Last updated: August 26, 2016 - 2:14 am UTC

Version: 11g

Viewed 1000+ times

You Asked

Hi ,

My aim is to print week days from a given date, for ex :

IF I provide a date like '12-DEC-2012' ( Which is Thursday ) then my program should print as below

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

But below code is running in a loop for ever, I am unable to find the error.

DECLARE
V_DATE_GIVEN VARCHAR2(20):=&V_DATE_GIVEN;
V_DATE DATE:= TO_DATE(V_DATE_GIVEN,'DD-MON-YYYY');
V_DAY VARCHAR2(50);
BEGIN
WHILE TO_CHAR(V_DATE,'DAY') != 'SUNDAY'
LOOP
V_DATE:=V_DATE+1;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(V_DATE);
V_DAY:=TO_CHAR(V_DATE,'DAY');
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(V_DAY);
END LOOP;
END;

-------------------------------------------------

Above program gives result as like below


13-DEC-12
THURSDAY
14-DEC-12
FRIDAY
15-DEC-12
SATURDAY
16-DEC-12
SUNDAY
17-DEC-12
MONDAY
18-DEC-12
TUESDAY
19-DEC-12
WEDNESDAY
20-DEC-12
THURSDAY
21-DEC-12
FRIDAY
22-DEC-12
SATURDAY
23-DEC-12
SUNDAY
and so on-----Till Buffer space completes
Thanks
Gopi

and Connor said...

Easy fix.... the "DAY" format mask is padded, eg

SQL> select to_char(sysdate,'DAY') from dual;

TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'DAY')
------------------------------------
FRIDAY

SQL> select 'x'||to_char(sysdate,'DAY')||'x' from dual;

'X'||TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'DAY')||'X'
--------------------------------------
xFRIDAY   x


So your TO_CHAR(V_DATE,'DAY') != 'SUNDAY' check never succeeds.

Perhaps use the "D" format mask, or a rtrim.

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Comments

fmDAY

Rajeshwaran Jeyabal, August 26, 2016 - 6:13 am UTC

Perhaps use the "D" format mask, or a rtrim.

or even, use fmDAY rather than the format DAY.

demo@ORA12C> select 'x'||to_char(sysdate,'DAY')||'x' from dual;

'X'||TO_CHA
-----------
xFRIDAY   x

1 row selected.

demo@ORA12C> select 'x'||to_char(sysdate,'fmDAY')||'x' from dual;

'X'||TO_CHA
-----------
xFRIDAYx

1 row selected.

demo@ORA12C>

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