Re: to_date function

Carlos Henrique Reimer <carlos(dot)reimer(at)opendb(dot)com(dot)br> writes:
> I've a Linux box running postgresql 8.2.17 and facing some strange results
> from the to_date function.

> As you can see in the following tests the problem occurs when the template
> used includes upper and lower case characters for the minute (Mi or mI).

> Am I using the incorrect syntax or is it a bug?

The defined template patterns are MI and mi. Random combinations of case
aren't accepted. I believe what's actually happening is that the code
is seeing this as separate letters m (which matches nothing so it's not
a template pattern but just constant text) and i or I, which are the
ISO-week patterns. More recent versions of PG throw an error

ERROR: invalid combination of date conventions
HINT: Do not mix Gregorian and ISO week date conventions in a formatting template.

but 8.2 probably just does something not too sensible with trying to
combine the ISO and Gregorian field values :-(

regards, tom lane