# 22. Virtuoso Functions Guide - stringdate

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## stringdate

Convert a string to a datetime
stringdate (in str varchar);
Parameters
str – A varchar date in human-readable (external) format.
Description

stringdate converts dates and timestamps from text to the internal DATETIME type.

The external format is: YYYY.MM.DD hh:mm.ss uuuuuu where uuuuuu represents number of microseconds.

If trailing parts are omitted from the string given to stringdate, they are assumed to be zero. The three first parts are mandatory. Note that use of cast (x as datetime) is preferred over this function.

Errors

SQLState | Error Code | Error Text | Description
22007 | DT006 | Cannot convert <offending string> to datetime |
22002 | DT007 | Nulls not allowed as parameters to stringdate |

Examples
Stringdate example with datestring_GMT

We are at central european time zone CET(GMT+1).

    SQL> use Demo;

     Done. -- 3 msec.
     SQL> select (datestring_GMT (stringdate ('2000-01-01 22:00')));
     callret
     VARCHAR
     _______________________________________________________________________________

     2000-01-01 21:00:00.000000

     1 Rows. -- 45 msec.
     SQL> select left (datestring(ShippedDate), 10) from Orders
        where ShippedDate > stringdate ('1996.6.3');
     callret
     VARCHAR
     _______________________________________________________________________________

     1996-06-04
     1996-06-04
     1996-06-05
     1996-06-05
     1996-06-05

     5 Rows. -- 3 msec.

See Also

datestring

The discussion of TIMESTAMP datatype in section Database Concepts of the documentation.