[UPHPU] Why do forums use Int(11) for dates?

[dataw0lf]

Ray Hunter wrote:

>
>personally, i think this is bad db design as you are putting a date value in a
>integer data type. timestamps are okay to use and you can store them in a
>timestamp data type that will do the job fine. Unless there is some other
>pressing design here like really watching the amount of space that each data
>type is using then i would recommend using the proper data type for it. this
>will also all you to use the database's built in date functions on that field.
>or instead of having php format the date you could do it in the database.
>
>  
>
I'm going to have to partially agree.  It depends on what exactly you're 
designing.  If it's a critical, SQL compliant database, you're going to 
want to hand the processing of dates to the database and keep it as a 
DATE field.  However, if you're doing something fairly spurious (like a 
forum), storing dates as an integer value gives you a bit more 
flexibility (huzzah for SQLite!).

dw