Amazon Redshift will no longer support the creation of new Python UDFs starting Patch 198. Existing Python UDFs will continue to function until June 30, 2026. For more information, see the [ blog post ](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/big-data/amazon-redshift-python-user-defined-functions-will-reach-end-of-support-after-june-30-2026/). 

# TO\$1DATE function
<a name="r_TO_DATE_function"></a>

TO\$1DATE converts a date represented by a character string to a DATE data type. 

**Note**  
TO\$1DATE doesn't support format strings with Q (Quarter number).

## Syntax
<a name="r_TO_DATE_function-synopsis"></a>

```
TO_DATE(string, format)
```

```
TO_DATE(string, format, is_strict)
```

## Arguments
<a name="r_TO_DATE_function-arguments"></a>

 *string*   
A string to be converted. 

 *format*   
A string literal that defines the format of the input *string*, in terms of its date parts. For a list of valid day, month, and year formats, see [Datetime format strings](r_FORMAT_strings.md). 

 *is\$1strict*   
An optional Boolean value that specifies whether an error is returned if an input date value is out of range. When *is\$1strict* is set to `TRUE`, an error is returned if there is an out of range value. When *is\$1strict* is set to `FALSE`, which is the default, then overflow values are accepted. 

## Return type
<a name="r_TO_DATE_function-return-type"></a>

TO\$1DATE returns a DATE, depending on the *format* value. 

If the conversion to *format* fails, then an error is returned. 

## Examples
<a name="r_TO_DATE_function-example"></a>

 The following SQL statement converts the date `02 Oct 2001` into a date data type.

```
select to_date('02 Oct 2001', 'DD Mon YYYY');

to_date
------------
2001-10-02
(1 row)
```

 The following SQL statement converts the string `20010631` to a date.

```
select to_date('20010631', 'YYYYMMDD', FALSE);
```

The result is July 1, 2001, because there are only 30 days in June.

```
to_date
------------
2001-07-01
```

 The following SQL statement converts the string `20010631` to a date: 

```
to_date('20010631', 'YYYYMMDD', TRUE);
```

The result is an error because there are only 30 days in June.

```
ERROR:  date/time field date value out of range: 2001-6-31
```