DATE formatting problem again

Hello,

I am searching after the date formatting solution, but didn't found a
correct one.

So example ORACLE has
- to_char function to make any kind of date format from a date type:
to_char(now,'yyyy.mm.dd')
- to_date to makes a date type from any kind of string: to_date
('1999.11.23','yyyy.mm.dd')

I don't believe that this very easy thing is not made in PostgreSQL. It
can be made as function also, but I have no time to learn PL/pgSQL
languague...

By the way: how can You use wildcards for date type (with to_char is
easy, but without??)

Regards:
FT

!!!PLEASE MAIL THE ANSWER TO ME ALSO: efte(at)negral(dot)com