From 55026b610687dae79d76af3dc64e5280cce09d74 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: jbranchaud <jbranchaud@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2018 11:32:21 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Add Convert A String To A Timestamp as a postgres til

---
 README.md                                   |  3 +-
 postgres/convert-a-string-to-a-timestamp.md | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 33 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 postgres/convert-a-string-to-a-timestamp.md

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4f2eeae..209c811 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ smart people at [Hashrocket](http://hashrocket.com/).
 For a steady stream of TILs from a variety of rocketeers, checkout
 [til.hashrocket.com](https://til.hashrocket.com/).
 
-_714 TILs and counting..._
+_715 TILs and counting..._
 
 ---
 
@@ -344,6 +344,7 @@ _714 TILs and counting..._
 - [Compute The md5 Hash Of A String](postgres/compute-the-md5-hash-of-a-string.md)
 - [Configure The Timezone](postgres/configure-the-timezone.md)
 - [Constructing A Range Of Dates](postgres/constructing-a-range-of-dates.md)
+- [Convert A String To A Timestamp](postgres/convert-a-string-to-a-timestamp.md)
 - [Count Records By Type](postgres/count-records-by-type.md)
 - [Create A Composite Primary Key](postgres/create-a-composite-primary-key.md)
 - [Create hstore From Two Arrays](postgres/create-hstore-from-two-arrays.md)
diff --git a/postgres/convert-a-string-to-a-timestamp.md b/postgres/convert-a-string-to-a-timestamp.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b73f435
--- /dev/null
+++ b/postgres/convert-a-string-to-a-timestamp.md
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+# Convert A String To A Timestamp
+
+If you have a string that represents a point in time, there are a couple
+ways that you can convert it to a PostgreSQL `timestamptz` value.
+
+If the string is in [ISO 8601
+format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601), then it can be simply cast
+to `timestamptz`.
+
+```sql
+> select '2018-10-24'::timestamptz;
+      timestamptz
+------------------------
+ 2018-10-24 00:00:00-05
+```
+
+A more general purpose approach is to use the
+[`to_timestamp`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/11/static/functions-formatting.html)
+function.
+
+```sql
+> select to_timestamp('2018-10-24', 'YYYY-MM-DD');
+      to_timestamp
+------------------------
+ 2018-10-24 00:00:00-05
+```
+
+The first argument is our string-to-be-converted in whatever format. The
+second argument is another string describing in what format that string is.
+
+Note: Both of these approaches produce a `timestamptz` value.