Proposal: is_castable

From: Michał Wadas <michalwadas(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: pgsql-hackers(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Proposal: is_castable
Date: 2020-04-03 11:45:31
Message-ID: CAMEnU0Ae+h5zFoEra004NXTaPxPYABv4B9SdR9Tm15mNPT6OOQ@mail.gmail.com
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Currently there is no way to check if CAST will succeed.

Therefore I propose adding new function: is_castable

SELECT is_castable('foo' as time) // false
SELECT is_castable('123' as numeric) // true
SELECT is_castable(1.5 as int) // true
SELECT is_castable('1.5' as int) // false

Many users write their own functions:

https://stackoverflow.com/q/10306830/2446102 (11k views, ~25 upvotes)
https://stackoverflow.com/q/36775814/2446102
https://stackoverflow.com/a/16206123/2446102 (72k views, 70 upvotes)
https://stackoverflow.com/q/2082686/2446102 (174k views, ~150 upvotes)

Similar features are implemented in:
- SQL Server (as TRY_CONVERT)
- Oracle (as CONVERT([val] DEFAULT [expr] ON CONVERSION ERROR)

I would love to implement it myself, but my knowledge of C is superficial.

Thanks,
Michał Wadas

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