SAFE_TO_DATE

Return a DATE data type from a VARCHAR string that represents a date in YYYYMMDD format.

SAFE_TO_DATE(input_date varchar, format varchar)

The input VARCHAR string is the first argument, and its format is the second argument.

Note the specific requirements of this function:

The specified format must be exactly YYYYMMDD. If you specify any other format, the function returns NULL.
Each part of the date must be present in the input string (year, month, and day).
The input string cannot contain delimiter characters between the date parts, such as - or / characters.
The range of supported dates is from 0001-01-01 to 9999-12-31. Dates that fall outside this range cannot be cast and return NULL.

For example:

yellowbrick=# select safe_to_date('19600309','YYYYMMDD');
 safe_to_date 
--------------
 1960-03-09
(1 row)

The following example returns NULL because the date format is incorrect.

yellowbrick_test=# select safe_to_date('1960-03-09','MDY');
 safe_to_date 
--------------
 [NULL]
(1 row)

The following example returns NULL because the input string contains delimiters between the date parts:

yellowbrick_test=# select safe_to_date('1960-03-09','YYYYMMDD');
 safe_to_date 
--------------
 [NULL]
(1 row)

SAFE_TO_DATE ​