> Hi, > > I am a real newbee and I hope this is the right place to post a feature > request. > > I am receiving data from a csv file where one column has a strange data > format. It would be nice if I could use Copy From with to_timestamp to > transform the date. As far as I know this is not possible to do in one step > (unlike MySQL I believe). I, therefore, have to first read large amounts of > CSV data into one table where the data is a char(15) column. Then create > another table using: > CREATE TABLE T (like tempT); > > ALTER TABLE T ALTER COLUMN thedate TYPE TIMESTAMP; > > However, then I run into: > ERROR: column "thedate" cannot be cast to type "pg_catalog.timestamp" > > This error comes even though the table is empty. Could it be an idea to > allow this for empty tables? Am I missing something obvious in my > unreasonably complicated approach? >
Try: ALTER TABLE T ALTER COLUMN thedate TYPE TIMESTAMP USING CAST (thedate AS timestamp);