converting to german date format

Hi,

i have different databases with have columns of type 'date'.
my application converts the date format to german date format like
09-28-2001 to 28.09.2001 and back again if the user enters a german
date format.

are there any solutions to do stuff like this inside the database?
i am thinking of two solutions:
a) a trigger which is fired on each select and insert/update to
convert german date format to postgres date format.
b) create a new type which has input and output routines to convert
them and inherits date format

quite new to sql i need some advice of what is the best solution and
if there is any open source out there i can use?

janning

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