Oracle SYSDATE Function

The Oracle SYSDATE function returns the current date and time of the Operating System (OS) where the Oracle Database is running.

Syntax #

Since the SYSDATE function does not require any argument, you can call it without specifying the parentheses:

SYSDATECode language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Return value #

The SYSDATE function returns the current date and time value whose type is DATE.

The format of the returned date time value depends on the value of the NLS_DATE_FORMAT parameter.

Examples #

The following example returns the current date and time of the OS where the Oracle Database resides:

SELECT 
    TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'MM-DD-YYYY HH24:MI:SS') result
FROM 
    dual;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Try it

In this example, we used the TO_CHAR() function to format the current system date and time value returned by the SYSDATE function.

The following table illustrates the arithmetic of the SYSDATE function:

SYSDATE Math	Description
WHERE (date) > SYSDATE - 8/24;	Past 8 hours
WHERE (date) > SYSDATE - 30;	Past 30 days
WHERE (date) > SYSDATE - 30/1440;	Past 30 minutes
8/24	8 hours
15/24/60/60	15  seconds
1/24/60	One minute
1/24	One hour
TRUNC(SYSDATE+1/24,'HH')	1 hour starting with the next hour

Remarks #

The Oracle SYSDATE function cannot be used in the condition of a CHECK constraint.

Summary #

• Use the Oracle SYSDATE function to get the current system date and time.