+
+ to_timestamp and to_date
+ exist to handle input formats that cannot be converted by
+ simple casting. These functions interpret input liberally,
+ with minimal error checking. While they produce valid output,
+ the conversion can yield unexpected results. For example,
+ input to these functions is not restricted by normal ranges,
+ thus to_date('20096040','YYYYMMDD') returns
+ 2014-01-17 rather than causing an error.
+ Casting does not have this behavior.
+
+
+
Ordinary text is allowed in to_char