Works for me.
chris=# select substr('hi there', 3, 5)::varchar(5) as xx;
  xx
-------
  ther
(1 row)
chris=# select version();
                           version
-------------------------------------------------------------
 PostgreSQL 7.1.2 on i686-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC 2.96
(1 row)
On Mon, 15 Oct 2001 14:56, guard wrote:
> thanks
>
> I have run "select substr('hi there', 3, 5)::varchar(5) as xx;"
> but get error message
> Error: ERROR:  parser: parse error at or near ":"