My company is using an Informix DBMS version 7.20 on a SCO Unix machine (should be version 5). I want to convert a DATE field to CHAR data type for comparision.

For example, the DATE field named TheDate, with data '2001/02/20'. I want it output as 0220.

However, I cannot use TO_CHAR and CAST functions.

Anybody know if there is any similar function I can use in the SQL command?

Thanks

You can use square brackets. I think it's something like this:

Select thedate[6,2] || thedate[9,2]
from table...

I think square brackets work only for text. How can I change the DATE field to a TEXT type.