assorted_psql.sql

--returns rows in random order
select * from sometable order by random();

--use '::' for casting
select '2013-01-01'::date;
--    date    
--------------
-- 2013-01-01
select 1 / 10 as non_casted, 1::float8 / 10 as casted;
-- non_casted | casted 
--------------+--------
--          0 |    0.1

--creating a new table on the fly
select
    *
into
   newtable
from
   oldtable;
--or with a temp table
select
    *
into
   temp new_temptable
from
   oldtable;

order by random() causes a full table scan on mySQL -- which means its generally a bad thing to do on any decent sized table. Not sure if the same holds true in Postgres