oracle date format model

From: <tncc>
Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 07:10:31 +0800
Message-ID: <41d5dc67_3@rain.i-cable.com>

There is such a statement made by the oracle9i documentation (under Format model of SQL Reference):
***quote:***
Oracle returns and error if an alphanumeric character is found in the date string where punctuation character is found in the format string. For example:

TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('0297', 'MM/YY'), 'MM/YY') returns an error.

---

However, I tried:

select TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('0297', 'MM/YY'), 'MM/YY') from dual

and there is no error returned. Instead the date is displayed properly (feb, 1997).

What is meant by the above statement? Received on Fri Dec 31 2004 - 17:10:31 CST