Is there a way to change the default date input format - mysql

Question

I have a source of data from where I extract some fields, among the fields there are some date fields and the source sends their values like this
#DD/MM/YYYY#
almost all the fields can be sent into the query with no modificaction, except this of course.
I have written a program the gets the data from an internet connection and sends it to the MySQL server and it's sending everything as it should, I am sure because I enabled general logging in the MySQL server and I can see all the queries are correct, except the ones with date fields.
I would like to avoid parsing the fields this way because it's a lot of work since it's all written in c, but if there is no way to do it, I understand and would accept that as an answer of course.
As an example suppose we had the following
INSERT INTO sometable VALUES ('#12/10/2015#', ... OTHER_VALUES ..., '#11/10/2015#');
in this case I send the whole thing as a query using mysql_query() from libmysqlclient.
In other cases I can split the parts of the message in something that is like an instruction and the parameters, something like this
iab A,B,C,#12/10/2015#,X,Y,#11/10/2015#
which could mean INSERT INTO table_a_something_b_whatever VALUES, and in this situation of course, I capture all the parameters and send a single query with a list of VALUES in it. Also in this situation, it's rather simple because I can handle the date like this
char date[] = "#11/10/2015#";
int day;
int month;
int year;
if (sscanf(date, "#%d/%d/%d#", &day, &month, &year) == 3)
{
/* it's fine, build a sane YYYY-MM-DD */
}
So the question is:
How can I tell the MySQL server in what format the date fields are?
Clarification to: Comment 1
Not necessarily INSERT, it's more complex than that. They are sometimes queries with all their parameters in it, sometimes they are just the parameters and I have to build the query. It's a huge mess but I can't do anything about it because it's a paid database and I must use it for the time being.
The real problem is when the query comes from the source and has to be sent as it is, because then there can be many occurrences. When I split the parameters one by one there is no real problem because parsing the above date format and generating the appropriate value of MySQL is quite simple.

Answer 1

You can use STR_TO_DATE() in MySQL:
SELECT STR_TO_DATE('#08/10/2015#','#%d/%m%Y#');
Use this as part of your INSERT process:
INSERT INTO yourtable (yourdatecolumn) VALUES (STR_TO_DATE('#08/10/2015#','#%d/%m%Y#'));

Answer 2

The only Thing I could imagine at the Moment would be to Change your Column-Type from DateTime to varchar and use a BEFORE INSERT Trigger to fix "wrong" Dates.
Something like this:
DELIMITER //
CREATE TRIGGER t1 BEFORE INSERT on myTable FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
IF (NEW.myDate regexp '#[[:digit:]]+\/[[:digit:]]+\/[[:digit:]]+#') THEN
SET NEW.myDate = STR_TO_DATE(NEW.myDate,'#%d/%m/%Y#');
END IF;
END; //
DELIMITER ;
If you are just Need to run the Import in question once, use the Trigger to generate a "proper" dateTimeColumn out of the inserts - and drop the varchar-column afterwards:
('myDate' := varchar column to be dropped afterwards;`'myRealDate' := DateTime Column to Keep afterwards)
DELIMITER //
CREATE TRIGGER t1 BEFORE INSERT on myTable FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
IF (NEW.myDate regexp '#[[:digit:]]+\/[[:digit:]]+\/[[:digit:]]+#') THEN
SET NEW.myRealDate = STR_TO_DATE(NEW.myDate,'#%d/%m/%Y#');
else
#assume a valid date representation
SET NEW.myRealDate = NEW.myDate;
END IF;
END; //
DELIMITER ;
Unfortunately you cannot use a Trigger to work on the datetime-column itself, because mysql will already mess up the NEW.myDate-Column.