title: Is there a function / SQL Query in Oracle that filters data if it can be converted to DateTime?
body: <p>I'm programming a Java software that uses an Oracle Database for storage. I can probably best describe it as an audit trail (?) of sorts, recording what my test audience did, on what date, and on what computer. These are all manual input, so the people entered this information manually, which is then saved onto the database, and then view-able by the administrator.</p>
  
  <p>Here's the SQL statement I use for retrieving the data:</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT fld 1 as EmpNumber, 
  fld2 as EmpName, 
  fld6 as Date
  FROM tblReportTemp  
  LEFT JOIN tblPersonalInfo b ON $P{hrStoreOp}= b.ID_PERSONAL
  WHERE computerName = $P{COMPNAME}
  ORDER BY fld6,fld2 asc
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My team mate decided to make all the fields a VARCHAR type, and then decided to have the users type in the date, as opposed to, using a date picker. So a lot of test users, the lazy ones, simply put in whatever it is that's easiest to reach, like Q, or 1, or even space. So first of all, it won't arrange properly by date, and second, my attempts to convert the data into a date via TO_DATE(fld6, 'MM/dd/yy') before arranging it has been met with failure, since it can't convert 'Q' to a date.</p>
  
  <p>I've since replaced the textbox with a date picker, however, we are not allowed to modify the database.</p>
  
  <p>So my proposed solution is to modify my SQL statement above to filter out those that can't be converted to date. Is there an SQL query for Oracle that can do this?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks.</p>