What is it with dates? ....oracle

What exactly is it with dates that so many Oracle developers struggle with? Why do they go to such lengths to avoid using the DATE type? Why, if DATE validation or arithmetic is required, would they use CHARs or NUMBERs? Abuses of DATEs seems to be a recurring theme on Oracle WTF. Indeed, here's another good example kindly provided by Graham Oakes.

Over to Graham...

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This is a cracker, the easy way to check the supplied date in a string (after all who actually wants to use date types) is a valid date.

IF to_number(substr(v_valuedate,3,2)) NOT BETWEEN 1 AND 12
THEN
   v_rowstatustype := -190;
ELSE
   -- check 31 day months
   IF substr(v_valuedate,3,2) IN ('01','03','05','07','08','10','12')
   THEN
       IF to_number(substr(v_valuedate,1,2)) > 31
       THEN
           v_rowstatustype := -200;
       END IF;

   -- check 30 day months
   ELSIF substr(v_valuedate,3,2) IN ('04','06','09','11')
   THEN
       IF to_number(substr(v_valuedate,1,2)) > 30
       THEN
           v_rowstatustype := -200;
       END IF;

   -- check leap year feb
   ELSIF substr(v_valuedate,3,2) = '02'
         AND MOD(to_number(substr(v_valuedate,5,4)),4) = 0
   THEN
       IF to_number(substr(v_valuedate,1,2)) > 29
       THEN
           v_rowstatustype := -200;
       END IF;

   -- check non-leap year feb
   ELSIF substr(v_valuedate,3,2) = '02'
         AND MOD(to_number(substr(v_valuedate,5,4)),4) != 0
   THEN
       IF to_number(substr(v_valuedate,1,2)) > 28
       THEN
           v_rowstatustype := -200;
       END IF;
   END IF;
END IF;