You are correct, Andreas. => select now()>'Jul 14 2006 9:16:47AM'; ?column? ---------- t (1 row)
=> select now() > CASE WHEN 'Jul 14 2006 9:16:47AM' IS NOT NULL THEN 'Jul 14 2006 9:16:47AM' END; ?column? ---------- f (1 row) I've also found that there must be more than one typecasting function being used because the result can be different depending on the format of the timestamp string: => select now()>coalesce('Jul 14 2006 9:16:47AM'); ?column? ---------- f (1 row) => select now()>coalesce('2006-07-14 9:16:47'); ?column? ---------- t (1 row) ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster