That is what he is saying.
Generally you can cast char / varchar / text to each other without going
through a text cast first.
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.
Mike
On Mon, 2004-12-20 at 21:48, Keith Worthington wrote:
> Tom Lane wrote:
>
> >"Keith Worthington" <keithw@narrowpathinc.com> writes:
> >
> >
> >>IPADB=# SELECT CAST(scan_date || scan_time AS timestamp) AS datetime_timestamp
> >>FROM data_transfer.tbl_inventory_scanner;
> >>ERROR: Cannot cast type character to timestamp without time zone
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >>IPADB=# SELECT employee_id, item_id, CAST(quantity AS float4) AS quantity FROM
> >>data_transfer.tbl_inventory_scanner;
> >>ERROR: Cannot cast type character varying to real
> >>
> >>
> >
> >Try casting the inputs to type "text" and then to timestamp or real.
> >
> > regards, tom lane
> >
> >---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> >TIP 8: explain analyze is your friend
> >
> Tom,
>
> Are you saying that I should try something like
>
> CAST( CAST( quantity AS text ) AS float4) AS quantity
