Question

Is it better to store dates in mysql in three columns or use just one column. Which one is faster. Also, if I just want to do inserts with todays date in format dd/mm/yy , how do I do that. and also how do I do selects with that. Also, lets say if I wanted to get results for all the wednesdays, how do I do that or lets say one date 25th of all the months and years, how do i do that.

Thanks People.

I am using PHP with Apache and Mysql.

What are the drawbacks of using the structure that I am proposing. I can easily get all the 25th by using the date table and I can get all the days using another column for days. How much difference would be there in the terms of speed between my proposed solution and using a DATE table?

Answer 1

Also, if I just want to do inserts with todays date in format dd/mm/yy ,how do I do that.

Well it depends on the format your date is passed in through your 
form but you are going to want to store your date in YYYY-mm-dd format.

INSERT INTO my_table (timefieldname) VALUES ( '$date' );

and also how do I do selects with that.

SELECT timefieldname FROM my_table;

//or you can format the date - this will give you month/day/year 01/01/2012
SELECT DATE_FORMAT(timefieldname, '%m/%d/%Y') FROM my_table;

Also, lets say if I wanted to get results for all the wednesdays,

SELECT timefieldname FROM my_table WHERE DAYNAME(timefieldname) = 'Wednesday';

How do I do that or lets say one date 25th of all the months and years, how do i do that.

SELECT timefieldname FROM my_table WHERE DAY(timefieldname) = '25';