Getting current date using dual (Oracle)

[Java Tip]

The code snippet prenseted below shows the use of dual when fetching dates from Oracle.

String sql =
  "select {fn dayname ({fn now()})}," +
  "           {d '1997-05-24'}, " +
  "           {t '10:30:29' }, " +
  "           {ts '1997-05-24 10:30:29.123'}" +
  "           from dual" ;

ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(sql);

while (rs.next())
   System.out.println("results: " + rs.getString(1) +
      "\n "   + rs.getString(2) +
      "\n "   + rs.getString(3) +
      "\n "   + rs.getString(4) );

[rwynkoop@mail.win.org]

Why not just do:

select sysdate from dual;

then do

rs.getDate or rs.getTimeStamp.