mysql query in between dates not working - mysql

Question

I have the following mysql table:
tasks:
=====================
tid
status
desc
duedate
And i have the following records in that table:
records
===========================
1
active
Test description
08/15/2014
2
active
Another description
08/31/204
I am trying to get the days that there is a task for, in that particular month. I have the following query but when i run it it gets both records but "day" is null on both of them for some reason. Can someone please help me with this.
MYSQL QUERY
====================
SELECT DATE_FORMAT(due_date,'%d') AS day FROM tasks WHERE due_date BETWEEN '08/01/2014' AND '08/31/2014'

Answer 1

Try:
SELECT DAY(due_date) AS day
FROM tasks
WHERE due_date >= '2014-08'
AND due_date < '2014-09';
DAY() is a better function for what you want and I prefer using >= and < than BETWEEN for date comparisons, as it allows you to specify precise ranges more easily. Here, for example, you don't need to know the number of days in the month.
I have also used the default date format, which is preferable. If you need the, in my opinion, cray American date format, use DATE_FORMAT() in your SELECT.
This will only work with DATE, DATETIME and TIMESTAMP columns, which is how your due_date should be stored, preferably DATE.
UPDATE
To convert the VARCHAR column to DATE run:
UPDATE tasks SET due_date=STR_TO_DATE(due_date,'%m/%d/%Y')
Then change the type. Also remember to change your INSERT statements to use the default format.

Answer 2

You've got to convert those "date" strings to proper date values with STR_TO_DATE:
SELECT
DAY(STR_TO_DATE(due_date,'%m/%d/%Y')) AS day
FROM tasks
WHERE
STR_TO_DATE(due_date, '%m/%d/%Y')
BETWEEN STR_TO_DATE('08/01/2014' '%m/%d/%Y')
AND STR_TO_DATE('08/31/2014', '%m/%d/%Y')
else you're comparing strings instead.
Note:
It would be better to use a proper DATE or DATETIME column instead.
With the current VARCHAR format MySQL is unable to use indexes. That's very bad for performance.
You can convert your data by adding another column to your table:
ALTER TABLE tasks
ADD COLUMN new_due_date DATE;
Then you use an UPDATE statement to fill this new column
UPDATE tasks
SET new_due_date = STR_TO_DATE(due_date, '%m/%d/%Y');
If you don't need your old column anymore then you can delete this column and modify the new column to have the name of the old one. Then you will have your table with all your data in a DATE column.