Search Results initialize_with_calendar

Overview

FND_DATE is a core Oracle E-Business Suite utility package that centralizes date and datetime conversion between Oracle's internal canonical storage format and the formatted strings presented to end users. In Oracle EBS 12.1.1 and 12.2.2, date columns are generally stored using the canonical YYYY/MM/DD HH24:MI:SS representation, while display values are driven by user and site level profile options governing date masks and calendars. FND_DATE exists to insulate application code from those settings, reconciling user-facing masks with canonical values in a consistent, reusable manner.

Beyond simple formatting, the package supports multiple calendars beyond the default Gregorian calendar, including Thai Buddha, Arabic Hijrah, and English Hijrah. Initialization reads the effective user mask and date/time mask, normalizes them, and derives corresponding output masks. This design allows calling code to perform conversions using the session's effective NLS date preferences while abstracting the underlying calendar transformation logic into private helper routines.

Key Procedures and Functions

The package exposes 30 documented procedures and functions. The core conversion routines operate in paired directions between three representations: canonical, character, and display forms.

• INITIALIZE and INITIALIZE_WITH_CALENDAR — Establish the package session state, including user and datetime masks and the active calendar. INITIALIZE delegates to INITIALIZE_WITH_CALENDAR, which validates the calendar name and sets the non-Gregorian indicator.
• DATE_TO_DISPLAYDATE and DATE_TO_DISPLAYDT — Convert a canonical date value to its user-facing display date or display datetime string.
• DISPLAYDATE_TO_DATE and DISPLAYDT_TO_DATE — The inverse conversions, parsing display strings back into canonical date values.
• DATE_TO_CHARDATE and DATE_TO_CHARDT — Convert canonical dates into character strings using a specified explicit format mask.
• CHARDATE_TO_DATE and CHARDT_TO_DATE — Parse character strings formatted with explicit masks back into canonical date values.
• CANONICAL_TO_DATE and DATE_TO_CANONICAL — Bridge between canonical text and Oracle DATE values.
• STRING_TO_DATE and STRING_TO_CANONICAL — General parsing entry points accepting string input.
• ADJUST_DATETIME — Apply calendar-aware adjustments to datetime values.
• CALENDAR_AWARENESS_PROFILE — Report or evaluate the calendar awareness profile setting.
• TO_CHAR_INTL — Internationalized character conversion honoring NLS settings.
• TEST — A diagnostic entry point for validating package behavior.

Tables Accessed

The only documented table reference, accessed through an APPS synonym, is FND_LANGUAGES. The package consults this table to determine language-specific formatting behavior and NLS context, ensuring that date masking and calendar handling reflect the effective language of the session. No write operations against application data tables are documented.

Usage Notes

FND_DATE is typically initialized at the start of an Oracle Forms session, a concurrent program, or a custom PL/SQL routine before any date conversion is attempted, because conversions depend on the package-level mask and calendar state established by INITIALIZE. The package is referenced by over 2,000 other packages in the EBS schema, confirming its role as a foundational dependency. Custom code should call the public documented procedures rather than manipulating package globals directly. The cache of the searched token "date_to_displaydt" is likely a partial or mis-cased reference to the documented DISPLAYDT_TO_DATE function, whose purpose is the inverse of DATE_TO_DISPLAYDT.