Converts a date, time or number to text in the format you need.
TO_CHAR(<value>, '<format>')
The format is made of patterns: DD — day, MM — month, YYYY — year, HH24 — hour, MI — minutes. Everything else, such as dots and colons, stays as it is. You need it when a date has to be shown to people in a familiar form rather than the way the database stores it.
orders
| id | created_at | amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-07-03 10:15:00 | 120.50 |
| 2 | 2026-07-28 18:40:00 | 80.25 |
| 3 | 2026-08-09 09:05:00 | 199.99 |
| 4 | 2026-08-21 14:30:00 | 45.00 |
| 5 | 2026-09-02 11:00:00 | 64.75 |
These tables already exist in the sandbox — the examples below use them. Want to try this in your own database? Copy the SQL.
| formatted_date | formatted_time |
|---|---|
| 13.09.2026 | 15:47 |
| id | created |
|---|---|
| 1 | 03.07.2026 10:15 |
| 2 | 28.07.2026 18:40 |
| 3 | 09.08.2026 09:05 |
| 4 | 21.08.2026 14:30 |
| 5 | 02.09.2026 11:00 |
| id | month |
|---|---|
| 1 | July 2026 |
| 2 | July 2026 |
| 3 | August 2026 |
| 4 | August 2026 |
| 5 | September 2026 |
FM removes the spaces PostgreSQL uses to pad month names to the same length.
MM is the month; minutes are MI. TO_CHAR(TIMESTAMP '2026-09-13 15:47', 'HH24:MM') shows 15:09: the hour and the month number.
The result is text, so it sorts as text: August, July, September. Sort by the date itself and keep TO_CHAR for display.
Without FM, month names are padded with spaces to 9 characters: the 'Month' format for July gives July followed by five spaces.