mysql between operator with dates

Question

select \'2011-02-29\' BETWEEN \'2011-02-01\' AND \'2011-03-03\'‎

this is returning 1. I think between doesn\'t consider leap year.

Answer 1

DATE checks the validity while str_to_date does not.

mysql> select str_to_date('2010-02-31', '%Y-%m-%d');
+---------------------------------------+
| str_to_date('2010-02-31', '%Y-%m-%d') |
+---------------------------------------+
| 2010-02-31                            |
+---------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select str_to_date('2010-04-31', '%Y-%m-%d');
+---------------------------------------+
| str_to_date('2010-04-31', '%Y-%m-%d') |
+---------------------------------------+
| 2010-04-31                            |
+---------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> select date('2010-02-31');
+--------------------+
| date('2010-02-31') |
+--------------------+
| NULL               |
+--------------------+
1 row in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec)

mysql> select date('2010-04-31');
+--------------------+
| date('2010-04-31') |
+--------------------+
| NULL               |
+--------------------+
1 row in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec)

UPDATE according to @Aziz , DATE will check whether a date is real or not. According to my test, seems str_to_date does not check.