title: Can I force SQLPLUS to use NLS_DATE_FORMAT for insert?
body: <p>Is there a way to force an implicit date conversion on an insert statement (i.e. without using TO_DATE)?</p>
  
  <p>context: I'm importing a data dump from Postgresql to Oracle.  Everything is working well except for date formatting.  I would prefer not to have to mung the Postgresql output.</p>
  
  <p>(<strong>update:</strong> this is with 10.2.  Strangely, changing the format to RRRR-MM-DD makes everything work!)</p>
  
  <pre><code>SQL&gt; create table a(b date);                                                                                                                                                                                              
  Table created.
  
  SQL&gt; ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT = 'YYYY-MM-DD';                                                                                                                                                                    
  Session altered.
  
  SQL&gt; insert into a values('2009-12-03');                                                                                                                                                                                  
  insert into a values('2009-12-03')
                       *
  ERROR at line 1:
  ORA-01843: not a valid month
  
  SQL&gt; insert into a values(to_date('2009-12-03','YYYY-MM-DD'));                                                                                                                                                            
  1 row created.
  </code></pre>