How do I alter the date format in Postgres? - postgresql

Question

I'm getting the following error message
ERROR: date/time field value out of range: "13/01/2010"
HINT: Perhaps you need a different "datestyle" setting.
I want to get my date in the format DD/MM/YYYY

Answer 1

SHOW datestyle;
DateStyle
-----------
ISO, MDY
(1 row)
INSERT INTO container VALUES ('13/01/2010');
ERROR: date/time field value out of range: "13/01/2010"
HINT: Perhaps you need a different "datestyle" setting.
SET datestyle = "ISO, DMY";
SET
INSERT INTO container VALUES ('13/01/2010');
INSERT 0 1
SET datestyle = default;
SET
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/runtime-config-client.html#GUC-DATESTYLE
DateStyle - Sets the display format
for date and time values, as well as
the rules for interpreting ambiguous
date input values.
For historical reasons, this variable
contains two independent components:
the output format specification (ISO,
Postgres, SQL, or German) and the
input/output specification for
year/month/day ordering (DMY, MDY, or
YMD).
Of course it's best to use unambiguous input format (ISO 8601), but there is no problem to adjust it as you need.

Answer 2

You could set the date style to European dd/mm/yyyy:
SET DateStyle TO European;
I'd advise against this though. I generally try to convert between formats, and keep ISO formatted dates in the data source. After all, it's only a matter of representation, not a matter of different data.

Answer 3

Edit:
When using this COPY, the valid input format is defined by the server configuration and can either be changed for the current session using the SET command as described by Berry or by adjusting the server configuration.
DateStyle description in the manual:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/runtime-config-client.html#GUC-DATESTYLE
The following is not valid for the real situation, but I'm keeping it for reference anyway
When using date (or timestamp) literals always specify a format mask to convert them. Otherwise your statements aren't portable and won't necessarily run on every installation.
The ANSI SQL standard for date literals is like this:
UPDATE some_table
SET date_column = DATE '2011-05-25'
WHERE pk_column = 42;
If you cannot change the literal format, you need to apply the to_date() function
UPDATE some_table
SET date_column = to_date('13/01/2010', 'dd/mm/yyyy')
WHERE pk_column = 42;
If this is not what you are doing you should show us the full SQL statement that generated the error.