Oracle Date Bug?

From: Tim Bouffard <bouffard_at_umis.upenn.edu>
Date: 1998/01/28
Message-ID: <34CF9A04.4F85@umis.upenn.edu>#1/1

Could someone take a crack at explaining to me why this doesn't return the same results? It almost seems like a bug...

SQL> get q1
  1 select
  2 sign(s_bpe-to_date('JAN-96','MON-YY')), s_bpe,   3 sign(TO_DATE(S_BPE)-to_date('JAN-96','MON-YY')) WRITE,   4 TO_DATE(S_BPE)
  5 from
  6 parm_70464
  7 where
  8* seg4 = '5VB010'
SQL> / SIGN(S_BPE-TO_DATE('JAN-96','MON-YY')) S_BPE WRITE TO_DATE(S
-------------------------------------- --------- ---------- ---------

                                    -1 01-NOV-97          1 01-NOV-97
SQL> desc parm_70464
 Name                            Null?    Type
 ------------------------------- -------- ----
 SEG4                                     VARCHAR2(6)
 PARM_BPE                                 DATE
 BPE1                                     VARCHAR2(11)
 BPE2                                     VARCHAR2(11)
 BPE3                                     VARCHAR2(11)
 S_BPE                                    DATE
 E_BPE                                    DATE
 SEG2                                     CHAR(4)
 FLAG                                     CHAR(1)
 MK1                                      NUMBER
 MK2                                      NUMBER
 CNT                                      NUMBER
 RCNT                                     NUMBER

SQL> select s_bpe from parm_70464
2 where seg4 = '5VB010'
3
SQL> /
S_BPE

01-NOV-97 Received on Wed Jan 28 1998 - 00:00:00 CST