title: Convert VARCHAR timestamp to TIMESTAMP?
body: <p>I have a time stamp of the form "17:16:28 Sep 13, 2011 PDT" in a MySQL database. The type of the field in the database is VARCHAR. I would like to convert this VARCHAR to a field of type TIMESTAMP in MySQL.</p>
  
  <p>I tried a few <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8356128/mysql-how-to-convert-varchar10-to-timestamp" title="mysql how to convert varchar(10) to TIMESTAMP?">solutions suggested elsewhere on this site</a>, such as using a string_to_time function, but these solutions all start from a different type of timestamp.</p>
  
  <p>How do I convert the VARCHAR timestamp mentioned above to a TIMESTAMP recognised by MySQL, in such a way that I can sort my data by date?</p>