On Thu, Dec 16, 2004 at 03:21:35PM -0800, Benjamin Smith wrote: > On Thursday 16 December 2004 14:09, Michael Fuhr wrote: > > > Dates are kept as ]YYYYMMDD', eg 2004114 for Nov 14, 2004. > > > > Why not use a DATE type? You can reformat it with to_char() if > > need be. > > Not a bad idea. I used int because it was simple and "good enough". My app is > written in PHP, and by using strtotime() I can trap typo errors before they > get near the database (which frequently are difficult to display in a > layperson readable format)
Using a DATE type in the database wouldn't prevent you from validating the date before inserting it. It *would* allow you to use various date/time functions and operators in SQL queries. > BTW: What is to_char, and why doesn't this work in PG 7.3.x? > > select to_char(datefield) from TableX; When you say it doesn't work, do you mean it fails with a message like "ERROR: function to_char(date) does not exist"? That's because to_char() requires two arguments -- for details see the "Data Type Formatting Functions" section of the "Functions and Operators" chapter in the documentation. -- Michael Fuhr http://www.fuhr.org/~mfuhr/ ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster
