title: Using 4-digit year in Oracle for centuries < 1900
body: <p>I'm needing to use 4 digit years in dates for a database centered around historical facts (e.g. Beethoven's birth (1700s)/death (1800s) dates).  I can't seem to figure out how to input this information with the INSERT statement.  Here's what I've got so far, but obviously it doesn't work...</p>
  
  <pre><code>CREATE TABLE musicians (
  id NUMBER(5) PRIMARY KEY,
  first_name VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL,
  last_name VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL,
  pri_inst VARCHAR2(15) NOT NULL,
  born DATE NOT NULL,
  died DATE
  );
  
  INSERT INTO musicians (
  inc_mus_id.nextval, 'Ludwig', 'van Beethoven', 'Piano', '16-Dec-1770', '26-Mar-1827')
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Thoughts?</p>
  
  <p>EDIT: Here's the actual error message: ORA-01747: invalid user.table.column, table.column, or column specification.</p>
  
  <p>EDIT 2: Also tried this: 
      INSERT INTO musicians (
      inc_mus_id.nextval, 'Ludwig', 'van Beethoven', 'Piano', TO_DATE('16-Dec-1770', 'dd-Mon-RRRR'), TO_DATE('26-Mar-1827', 'dd-Mon-RRRR'))</p>
  
  <p>EDIT 3: Solved!  Thanks @Rene!  Also, could do it without the TO_DATE function with dates formatted like: '16/Dec/1770'.</p>