Whatever RedHat is paying you it isn't enough.
On
Mon, 2004-12-20 at 22:14, Tom Lane wrote:
> Mike G <mike@thegodshalls.com> writes:
> > If you want to go from char / varchar to numeric or date types then you
> > need to cast them as text first and then the final data type.
>
> BTW, to enlarge on this a bit:
>
> The conversion functions that are actually supplied in pg_cast go from
> text to float4 or timestamp. In many situations Postgres will
> automatically use these same functions for conversions from varchar or
> char, because it knows that the latter datatypes are just about the same
> as text. However, in a scenario where you explicitly specify a cast,
> the system will insist on finding an exact match to the requested type
> conversion in pg_cast --- this is so that you can be sure that you get
> exactly the coercion you asked for, and not some surprising variant.
>
> If you want, you can add entries to the pg_cast catalog to allow direct
> coercions from varchar in all the same places where text can be
> converted. I'd not recommend treating char the same, since it's really
> not quite the same thing (trailing blank suppression and all that).
> See CREATE CAST ...
>
> regards, tom lane