Error PLS-00103 compiling a user-defined function in Oracle

Question

I am trying to create a user-defined function in Oracle that will return DATE if a text argument containing a date substring is specified. I tried a couple of ways to write this, and everyone seems to throw the same error:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION lm_date_convert (lm_date_in IN VARCHAR2(50))
  RETURN DATE DETERMINISTIC IS
BEGIN
  RETURN(TO_DATE(REGEXP_REPLACE(lm_date_in, '([[:digit:]]{2})[-/.]*([[:digit:]]{2})[-/.]*([[:digit:]]{4})','\3-\1-\2'), 'YYYY-MM-DD'));
END;

error:

FUNCTION lm_date_convert Compiled. 1/46
PLS-00103: the symbol "(" is encountered while waiting for one of the following:

: =.), the default @% character. the character ": =" is replaced by "(" to continue.

Any thoughts on this and general UDF writing tips (and good links) are welcome! Thank.

Answer 1

. VARCHAR2, VARCHAR2 (50).

, ...

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION lm_date_convert (lm_date_in IN VARCHAR2(50))
  2    RETURN DATE DETERMINISTIC IS
  3  BEGIN
  4    RETURN(TO_DATE(REGEXP_REPLACE(lm_date_in, '([[:digit:]]{2})[-/.]*([[:digit:]]{2})[-/.]*([[:digit:]]{4})','\3-\1-\2'), 'YYYY-MM-DD'));
  5  END;
  6  /

Warning: Function created with compilation errors.

SQL> sho err
Errors for FUNCTION LM_DATE_CONVERT:

LINE/COL ERROR
-------- -----------------------------------------------------------------
1/49     PLS-00103: Encountered the symbol "(" when expecting one of the
         following:
         := . ) , @ % default character
         The symbol ":=" was substituted for "(" to continue.

SQL>

, :

SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf

  1  CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION lm_date_convert (lm_date_in IN VARCHAR2)
  2    RETURN DATE DETERMINISTIC IS
  3  BEGIN
  4    RETURN(TO_DATE(REGEXP_REPLACE(lm_date_in, '([[:digit:]]{2})[-/.]*([[:digit:]]{2})[-/.]*([[:digit:]]{4})','\3-\1-\2'), 'YYYY-MM-DD'));
  5* END;
SQL> r
  1  CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION lm_date_convert (lm_date_in IN VARCHAR2)
  2    RETURN DATE DETERMINISTIC IS
  3  BEGIN
  4    RETURN(TO_DATE(REGEXP_REPLACE(lm_date_in, '([[:digit:]]{2})[-/.]*([[:digit:]]{2})[-/.]*([[:digit:]]{4})','\3-\1-\2'), 'YYYY-MM-DD'));
  5* END;

Function created.

SQL> 

---

" VARCHAR2 (50) VARCHAR2 (50) ."

TYPE SQL . SUBTYPE PL/SQL, . .

---

, Regex ? , , TO_CHAR TO_DATE? Oracle .