Re: Meridiem markers (was: [BUGS] Incorrect "invalid AM/PM string" error from to_timestamp) - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 4:08 AM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
> "Alex Hunsaker" <badalex@gmail.com> writes:
>> However that still leaves the original complaint around (at least IMHO):
>
>> select to_timestamp('AN', 'AM');
>> ERROR:  invalid AM/PM string
>
>> select to_timestamp('11:47 PM 27 Sep a2008', 'HH:MI PM DD Mon YYYY');
>> ERROR: invalid value for "YYYY" in source string
>
> Yeah, it would be a lot better if it said
>
>        ERROR: invalid value for "YYYY": "a2008"
>
> The DETAIL is good too, but it's no substitute for showing the exact
> substring that the code is unhappy about.
>

I agree.  And with my proposed changes to the meridiem/era marker
code, it will be much easier to improve the error messages in a
consistent way.

I'll work on a patch for the Nov commitfest.

Cheers,
BJ