Q:

Mysql what field type to use for dates with a mix of full and part dates

I have a table that has three different date columns, so I set each column as type 'date'.
However whenever im importing dates it seems to change them, and I have found it is because mysql does not allow null days and months.
My dates range from
1909-00-00
1963-09-00
1907-11-30
so sometimes we dont know the month, sometimes the day, and sometimes only the year was recorded. 
Surely the 'proper' way to do this is to use some kind of date field but I have tried a variety of different layouts when importing the data and non works :(
dd-mm-yyyy
mm-dd-yyyy
yyyy/dd/mm
Any suggestions?

A:

I would suggest using a varchar then converting it when ever you need it to be a date.  Here is a site with some date functions that would be useful.

