Question

The year is given as int: 2009, 2010 etc.
I want to convert this information to DATE (first January).

My solutions (I prefer the first one):

(year::char || '-01-01')::DATE
'0001-01-01' + ((year-1)::char || ' year')::interval

Is there a better (build in) or more elegant and faster solution?
(I’m currently working with PostgreSQL 8.4 but are also interested in more recent versions.)

Answer 1

I think this is the simplest way:

to_date(year::varchar, 'yyyy')