To: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
From: Thomas Kellerer <spam_eater@gmx.net>
Subject: Re: to_char() accepting invalid dates?
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:30:42 +0200
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Message-ID: <j03psc$aof$1@dough.gmane.org>
References: <j01p8u$qjl$1@dough.gmane.org>
	<201107182202.p6IM2Ri03591@momjian.us>
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In-Reply-To: <201107182202.p6IM2Ri03591@momjian.us>

Bruce Momjian, 19.07.2011 00:02:
>>>> postgres=>   select to_date('20110231', 'yyyymmdd');
>>>>
>>>>      to_date
>>>> ------------
>>>>     2011-03-03
>>>> (1 row)
>>>>
>>>> is there a way to have to_date() raise an exception in such a case?
>>>
>>> it's possible the odd behaviour you get is required by some standard.
>>
>> That would be *very* odd indeed.
>>
>>
>>>    jasen=# select '20110303'::date;
>> Thanks for the tip, this was more a question regarding _why_ to_char() behaves this way.
>
> Well, to_char() is based on Oracle's to_char().  How does Oracle handle
> such a date?

Oracle throws an error for the above example:

SQL> select to_date('20110231', 'YYYYMMDD') from dual;
select to_date('20110231', 'YYYYMMDD') from dual
                *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01839: date not valid for month specified

SQL>


Regards
Thomas