[Fwd: help building datetime from varchars]

I have tried contacting the list owner, but nobody responds so I am
knowingly sending administrative mail to the list. Sorry folks.

For months, particularly since February, I have been receiving e-mail
that is out-of-date. Since they are relatively old (weeks to months) I
cannot say whether or not they are duplicates. A copy of such an e-mail
I just received this morning is attached along its headers. Note that
postgresql.org received it on 27 Apr and that it was relayed to my mail
server within the last 24 hours (May 3 at 11:54pm GMT-4 to be exact).
Why does this happen and can't it be made to stop? (And I'm not picking
on Brent. His is just one of 8 messages I received this morning from
the month of April.)

Shane

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Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 14:15:45 +1200 (NZST)
From: Brent Wood <b(dot)wood(at)niwa(dot)co(dot)nz>
Subject: [GENERAL] help building datetime from varchars
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Hopefully someone can point me in the proper direction....

I have a table containg (amongst others) two varchar attrs date_s &
time_s.

They contain strings like:

date_s | time_s
------------+----------
01/10/1989 | 00:30:00

Can someone suggest an sql to turn these into a single datetime?

I have tried the following with results I don't understand:

env2003=# select date_s || time_s, to_timestamp(date_s || time_s,'DD/MM/YYYYHH:MM:SS') from event limit 1;
?column? | to_timestamp
--------------------+------------------------
01/10/198900:30:00 | 1991-06-05 00:00:00+12
(1 row)

env2003=# select date_s || ' ' || time_s, to_timestamp(date_s || ' ' || time_s,'DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM:SS') from event limit 1;
?column? | to_timestamp
---------------------+------------------------
01/10/1989 00:30:00 | 1991-06-05 00:00:00+12
(1 row)

Thanks,

Brent Wood

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