Does MySQL support historical date (like 1200)?

Question

I can\'t see any info about that. Where can I find the oldest date Mysql can support ?

Answer 1

Use SMALLINT for year, so the year will accept from -32768 (BC) to 32768 (AD) As for months and days, use TINYINT UNSIGNED

Most historical events dont have months and days, so you could query like this :

SELECT events FROM history WHERE year='-4990'

Result : 'Noah Ark'

Or : SELECT events FROM history WHERE year='570' AND month='4' AND day='20' return : "Muhammad pbuh was born"

Depending on requirements, you could also add DATETIME column and make it NULL for date before 1000 and vice versa (thus saving some bytes)