PostgreSQL "invalid input syntax for type timestamp" — Why Is the Date Failing to Parse?

Resolving PostgreSQL invalid input syntax for type timestamp: empty strings, DateStyle session defaults (DMY vs MDY), MySQL 0000-00-00 migration cleaning, and regex scanning.

Reviewed by:Senior Database Reliability Engineer

Tested Versions: PostgreSQL 18.6 & 17.11 (Alpine Linux / Docker 29.7) | Tarihsel: PostgreSQL 14, 15, 16

Operational Verification & Reliability Metadata

Last Technical Review: 29 Ekim 2026

Tested VersionsPostgreSQL 18.6 & 17.11 | Tarihsel: PostgreSQL 14.10, 15.6, 16.4

Required PrivilegesSELECT / UPDATE privileges on target table

Risk Assessment

LowBatch type casting aborts entire transaction upon first malformed string

Expected OutputZero parsing errors with ISO 8601 formatting and explicit to_timestamp() casting

Rollback Procedure:Clean staging tables and preserve raw source string values

PostgreSQL Docs: Date/Time Types & DateStyle

First 60 Seconds Emergency Protocol:

The error string is a symptom, not the root cause. Do not restart the server blindly. Run the diagnostic queries below to pinpoint the actual failure mode.

▸Symptoms

plaintext

ERROR:  invalid input syntax for type timestamp: ""
ERROR:  invalid input syntax for type timestamp: "31.12.2026"
ERROR:  date/time field value out of range: "2026-02-30 10:00:00"

▸Resolution Patterns

1Empty String to NULL:

sql

INSERT INTO kayit (tarih) VALUES (NULLIF($1, '')::timestamp);

1Clean MySQL 0000-00-00 Artifacts:

sql

SELECT NULLIF(NULLIF(tarih, ''), '0000-00-00 00:00:00')::timestamp FROM staging;

1Explicit Format Mask:

sql

SELECT to_timestamp('31.12.2026', 'DD.MM.YYYY');

•Engine Hub: PostgreSQL Production Hub

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