Oracle - Fetch date/time in milliseconds from DATE datatype field

Question

I have last_update_date column defined as DATE field

I want to get time in milliseconds.

Currently I have:

TO_CHAR         


        

Answer 1

As RC says, the DATE type only supports a granularity down to the second.

If converting to TIMESTAMP is truly not an option then how about the addition of another numerical column that just holds the milliseconds?

This option would be more cumbersome to deal with than a TIMESTAMP column but it could be workable if converting the type is not possible.