mySQL question (re: Dates)

[ugasucks]

I just started my first project with mySQL and need assistance with a date field...

My data has dates in the form of "Dec 19 1997 12:00AM." I have loaded my files of data into databases with a VARCHAR field storing the above date.

Is it possible for me to use the dates as they're stored now in the database to do Date calculations, such as to pull data between certain dates? I know I can code a C program to go through the data and make the Date conversion to YYYY-MM-DD if needed, but I would really like to just use the data as it is given to me, due to filesizes.

Thanks for any help you can give and please excuse my ignorance.

[steved]

You should be able to use the strtotime function to convert your date string into a unix timestamp.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php

[ugasucks]

that's exactly the type of function i needed. THANKS!!!