mysql: searching BETWEEN dates stored as varchar

Question

i would like to select * from table where dates between (some_date and another_date)

the problem is that the dates are stored as varchar!

Answer 1

You can CAST your varchar values to DATETIME or DATE type.

WHERE CAST(dates AS DATE) BETWEEN (7/28/10 and 7/29/10)

This might not be an optimal solution, because you may lose the benefit that indexes provide.