Re: to_char() accepting invalid dates?

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Momjian [mailto:bruce@momjian.us]
Sent: Monday, July 18, 2011 6:02 PM
To: Thomas Kellerer
Cc: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: to_char() accepting invalid dates?

Thomas Kellerer wrote:
> Jasen Betts wrote on 18.07.2011 11:23:
> >> 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?

> --
>   Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
>   EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

>   + It's impossible for everything to be true. +


This (from Oracle) makes me think, that it's implemented differently:

Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production

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,
Igor Neyman