Convert packed DB2 iseries value to YYYY-MM-DD - db2

Question

I'm trying to select records from a DB2 Iseries system where the date field is greater than the first of this year.
However, the date fields I'm selecting from are actually PACKED fields, not true dates.
I'm trying to convert them to YYYY-MM-DD format and get everything greater than '2018-01-01' but no matter what I try it says it's invalid.
Currently trying this:
SELECT *
FROM table1
WHERE val = 145
AND to_date(char(dateShp), 'YYYY-MM-DD') >= '2018-01-01';
it says expression not valid using format string specified.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

char(dateshp) is going to return a string like '20180319'
So your format string should not include the dashes.. 'YYYYMMDD'
example:
select to_date(char(20180101), 'YYYYMMDD')
from sysibm.sysdummy1;
So your code should be
SELECT *
FROM table1
WHERE val = 145
AND to_date(char(dateShp), 'YYYYMMDD') >= '2018-01-01';

Answer 2

Charles gave you a solution that converts the Packed date to a date field, and if you are comparing to another date field, this is a good solution. But if you are comparing to a constant value or another numeric field, you could just use something like this:
select *
from table1
where val = 145
and dateShp >= 20180101;