date in select statement

How can I use to_date function to display date column in a table. i.e I want to in select statement.
ex:

sql>select to_date(validityfrom ,'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS') from userrequest;

where validityfrom is a column with data type as date in table userrequest.

Thanx for suggestions. Received on Fri Feb 15 2002 - 03:32:18 CST