Function sqlFormatDate

Format a date/timestamp expression as a string.

IMPORTANT: format-token translation here is BEST-EFFORT for a common subset of tokens, NOT a full strftime-compatible formatting engine. Only the following tokens are recognized in the input format string (case sensitive, matched longest-first so e.g. HH24 is not partially consumed by HH):

• YYYY - 4-digit year
• MM - 2-digit month (01-12)
• DD - 2-digit day of month (01-31)
• HH24 - 2-digit hour, 24-hour clock (00-23)
• HH - 2-digit hour, 12-hour clock (01-12)
• MI - 2-digit minute (00-59)
• SS - 2-digit second (00-59) Any other characters in format (literal separators like -, /, :, spaces, etc) are passed through unchanged, best-effort, per dialect.

Dialect notes:

• postgres/cockroachdb/redshift/oracle: TO_CHAR(expr, format) — these tokens map onto TO_CHAR's native template natively, so the format string passes through unchanged.
• mysql/mariadb: DATE_FORMAT(expr, format), tokens translated to %Y, %m, %d, %H, %h, %i, %s.
• mssql: FORMAT(expr, format), tokens translated to .NET-style yyyy, MM, dd, HH, hh, mm, ss.
• sqlite: strftime(format, expr), tokens translated to %Y, %m, %d, %H, %I, %M, %S.
• db2: VARCHAR_FORMAT(expr, format) (Db2's TO_CHAR-equivalent); tokens pass through unchanged like Oracle/Postgres.
• snowflake: TO_VARCHAR(expr, format); tokens pass through unchanged.
• clickhouse: formatDateTime(expr, format), tokens translated to %Y, %m, %d, %H, %I, %i, %S (ClickHouse's directives are MySQL-strftime-like, notably using %i for minutes like MySQL).