Date Conversion Function PostgreSQL - postgresql

Question

I have the following function:
CREATE function SEMANA_ISO (fecha date) returns text as $$
select to_char(fecha, 'mm-dd-yyyy');
$$ LANGUAGE sql;
It works with:
Select SEMANA_ISO ('28/12/2014');
Select SEMANA_ISO ('01/01/2015');
Select SEMANA_ISO ('01/07/2015');
As you may see below
But not with:
Select SEMANA_ISO ('12/31/2014');
It shows:
********** Error **********
ERROR: The value of time / date is out of range "12/31/2014"
SQL state: 22008
Hint: You may need a different configuration of "dateStyle".
Character: 20
Do you have any suggestion without having to change the datestyle so I can enter
Select SEMANA_ISO ('12/31/2014');
And get an output of:
12-31-2014
using just one function to "parse" all dates?

Answer 1

Your function is declared to get a parameter of type date so you also need to pass such a value. '12/31/2014' is a character value, not a date.
When you pass a character literal (aka string) to the function Postgres is forced to do an implicit data type conversion based on the current datestyle - not something you should rely on.
If you want to call the function independently of the datestyle you need to pass a proper date literal, e.g. DATE '2014-12-31'
For more details on specifying date values, please see the manual: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/datatype-datetime.html#DATATYPE-DATETIME-INPUT

Answer 2

If you want 12/31/2014 accepted as a date set datestyle to iso, dmy;
if you want 31/12/2014 accepted as a date set datestyle to iso, mdy;
you can't have both at the same time, else 4/1/2015 is ambiguos, and must be rejected.

Answer 3

There is to_date() to input date literals with an arbitrary (given) format:
SELECT to_date('12/31/2014', 'MM/DD/YYYY') AS date1
, to_date('31/12/2014', 'DD/MM/YYYY') AS date2;
That's "without changing any datestyle". Obviously, you need to provide a matching format pattern, though.
To output the same in any desired format, use to_char():
SELECT to_char(to_date('12/31/2014', 'MM/DD/YYYY'), 'DD/MM/YYYY') AS date_as_text