Question

I am working with a MySQL database where dates are stored as varchar like this:

'2013-01-31' in column cl_223

I need to select only records from 2013 so I tried:

SELECT ..
FROM ....

Where cl_223 Like '2013'   

But that does not seem to work.

Thanks for all help!

Answer 1

Storing a datettime value in a varchar column complicates some functionality on date time operations. But of course you can select your values writing such a query as follow

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE cl_223 LIKE '2013%'

But if you don’t have any performance issue you can convert the varchar column to a datetime value and write stronger typed query like this:

  SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE  STR_TO_DATE(cl_223,'%Y-%m-%d2') BETWEEN '2013-01-01' AND '2013-12-31'

But if you need a date time value as a date time in your process you’d better store it in a datetime column instead of a varchar column.