ORA-01861: literal does not match format string

Question

When I try to execute this snippet: ``` cmd.CommandText = "SELECT alarm_id,definition_description,element_id, TO_CHAR (alarm_datetime, 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS'),severity, problem_text,status FROM aircom.alarms WHERE status = 1 and TO_DATE (alarm_datetime,'DD.MM.YYYY HH24:MI:SS') > TO_DATE ('07.09.2008 09:43:00', 'DD.MM.YYYY HH24:MI:SS') order by ALARM_DATETIME desc"; ``` I get: ``` ORA-01861: literal does not match format string ``` There is no problem with database connection because I can execute basic SQL commands. What is the problem with this statement?

Accepted Answer

Remove the TO_DATE in the WHERE clause

```
TO_DATE (alarm_datetime,'DD.MM.YYYY HH24:MI:SS')
```

and change the code to

```
alarm_datetime
```

The error comes from to_date conversion of a date column.

Added Explanation: Oracle converts your alarm_datetime into a string using its nls depended date format. After this it calls to_date with your provided date mask. This throws the exception.

ORA-01861: literal does not match format string

Solution

Problem