date_part - multiple values in format?

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Is there a way to format date according to a template or
anything like that?

Looked at the docs, didn't see anything (didn't see actually
anything much explaining how to get parts of date out)
appropriate.

I am looking basically for something like:
select date_part('%d %m %y', now()::datetime);

As I see it currently I can only do it with something like:
select ((date_part('day',now()::datetime) || date_part('month',
now()::datetime)) || date_part('year', now()::datetime);

which is, of course, rather clumsy.

This, btw, goes about concatenation, too.

Will there be a possibility of string concatenation in 7.x so that
I don't have to put all the concats in brackets? (ie. currently I
have to: ((((X || Y) || Z ) || A) || B)
which is of course also rather clumsy and leads to lots of
typos in case of more complex expressions.

Emils

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