extracting year from date using instr or mid

hello,
I have a date field in database. I have to extract it from the database, convert it into a string using Str function and then get the year out of that string. The format for storing is mm/dd/yyyy.
Please help in formulating a logic.
THanks!!!!:confused:

Why not just use the Year function on the retrieved Date value?

Thanks man!!!! Saved a lot of time....