MySQL: can I combine str_to_date and datediff?

[stikkybubble]

I have a database where dates were incorrectly formatted (so they are stored as varchar). Now I want to be able to only display dates from the past (including today).
I have found the mysql functions str_to_date and datediff, and have been trying to construct a mysql query which will combine them (using now() as the second date for datediff).
So far this has been a miserable failure. I'm quite new to php and mysql, and I'm not at all sure that what I am trying to do is even possible.
The table is called 'dates' and the column with the (wrongly formatted, e.g. 31/06/2009) date is called 'date'.
Here is the relevant piece of code - although I have been through several versions:

$query = "SELECT date FROM dates WHERE ((DateDiff(STR_TO_DATE('date', '&#37;d/%M/%Y'),NOW())) <= 0)";
$result = mysql_query($query, $dbh);
while($row = mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
echo "<option>";
echo $row[0];
echo "</option>";
}
mysql_close($dbh);

PS wasn't sure if this should be in PHP forum instead.
Apologies: did not see the mySQL forum there until after posting, sorry. Is it possible for a moderator to move this?

[r937]

the first thing you should fix is the STR_TO_DATE function call

you're asking it to convert the value of 'date' (which is a string)

what you want is to convert the value of the `date` column, instead

what STR_TO_DATE does is produce a date, and you don't need to use DATEDIFF, you can just use a comparison operator...

WHERE STR_TO_DATE(`date`,'&#37;d/%M/%Y') <= CURRENT_DATE

[stikkybubble]

Thank you so much: I don't have time to test this just now, but that certainly looks rational to me!

Thanks again!

[runrunforest]

Good stuff, taken note of this.

However I used to do this in a slightly different method.

As I store inputed time in seconds

My query would be like

WHERE time_column >= ' " time() " '