DB2 User Defined Function

[tfrancis]

Hi all,

I'm attempting to write a basic db2 function that converts the format of an inputted date of yyyymmddhhmm to dd/mm/yyyy. (DB2 8.1 on windows)

My approach was to strip the characters from the inputted date into individual variables then reconstruct them as a new variable into the format dd/mm/yyyy which will then be returned from the function.
Would this be the best approach to create this function? If so what inbuilt function would I use to strip the characters? Also I had wanted to write the function in java is that possible as im not familiar with the other languages?

Any suggestions would be appreciated

[tfrancis]

I've included my function below as it currently stands- although I suppose its part algorithm at this stage as im not sure how to implement the code correctly so it can be read within db2.

CREATE FUNCTION timeformat(timefmt varchar(20))
RETURNS varchar(20)
RETURN
year varchar(4)
month varchar(4)
day varchar(4)

year = substr(timefmt,1,4)
month = substr(timefmt,5,6)
day = substr(timefmt,7,8)

timefmt = day & "/" & month & "/" & year