Re: changing column datatype from char(20) to timestamp

"Lonni J Friedman" <netllama@gmail.com> writes:
> Unfortunately, I can't just do:
> ALTER TABLE data ALTER COLUMN date_created TYPE timestamp ;

> since the data is currently in this format:
> 04-29-2008 10:03:28

I think you're just missing an explicit cast:

ALTER TABLE data ALTER COLUMN date_created TYPE timestamp USING date_created::timestamp;

You should first check that datestyle is set to MDY to avoid
any confusion about the field order, but other than that I don't
see why you'd have a format problem.

            regards, tom lane