Convert string to date in mySQL

if you have a date column in a table that has a string datatype, it is impossible to query or find the record between 2 durations of date. for example, you have a table "myTable"

myTable

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Column  | Type
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date            | varchar

it is impossible to query like this
SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE date>='@dtFrom' AND date<='@dtTo' the correct way to get the record between the 2 dates is like this SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE STR_TO_DATE(date,'%d/%m/%Y') <= '@dtFrom' AND STR_TO_DATE(date,'%d/%m/%Y') <= '@dtTo' STR_TO_DATE(date,'%d/%m/%Y') the type '%d/%m/%Y' is depend on how you store the date into the table. In my case, I store it as 18/04/2006 more help can be found here - dev.mysql.com