nls_date_format & Y2K

When I put this in initsid.ora:

    NLS_DATE_FORMAT = DD-MON-RR Oracle's sys table looks OK:

    select name,value from v$parameter where name = 'nls_date_format';     nls_date_format DD-MON-RR

But, a sqlplus session ignores the nls_date_format:

    SQL> select to_char( to_date('10-JAN-00'), 'DD-MON-YYYY' ) from dual;

    10-JAN-1900 And I discover that sqlplus uses the DD-MON-RR format when either:

(a) I put it in the unix env ( setenv NLS_DATE_FORMAT DD-MON-RR ),
or

(b) I issue [ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT='DD-MON-RR'] in
sqlplus

For either of these:

    SQL> select to_char( to_date('10-JAN-00'), 'DD-MON-YYYY' ) from dual;

    10-JAN-2000 In addition, if I take NLS_DATE_FORMAT out of initsid.ora, then (a) & (b) above will still work;

To me, Y2K Compliance means _always_ using the DD-MON-RR format, and I can't guarantee that all clients will have (a)/(b).

To be Y2K, I need to have the initsid.ora setting be the default for all clients.

So, can anyone get DD-MON-RR as the default using only the initsid.ora setting?

I'm using 7.3.2.3 and sun/solaris2.5

Cheers,
Steve Received on Sat Jun 27 1998 - 05:11:45 CDT