strange behavior of decode?

can anyone explain to me why this does not work:

select to_char(sysdate,'Day') from dual; output -> Friday

select decode(to_char(sysdate,'Day'),'Friday',1,2) from dual; output -> 2

why is the output not 1?

if i do:
select decode(to_char(sysdate,'Dy'),'Fri',1,2) from dual; output -> 1

why does the decode work in this case but not the previous? any help would be much appreciated.
-maurice
samuels_at_seas.upenn.edu Received on Fri Aug 11 2000 - 00:00:00 CDT