Chris Bowlby <excalibur(at)accesswave(dot)ca> writes:
> ERROR: invalid input syntax for type date: "200W-01-01"
> the test data I am using for this example is as follows:
FWIW, I don't see any problem here using that test case. Have you tried
looking directly at the output of the substring function, ie
select substring(ilch.lot_id::text, 5, 1) FROM my_lot_test ilch;
regards, tom lane