title: MySQL - creating table where column input can be date or date as string
body: <p>What is the best way to create a table where a field will be a date. However, the input from the flat files may be formatted mm/dd/yyyy or a date as passed as a string.</p>
  
  <p>Example inputs could be:</p>
  
  <p>12/01/2000</p>
  
  <p>"2000/12/01"</p>
  
  <p>Simply using the code below won't account for the string, correct?</p>
  
  <pre><code>CREATE TABLE datetable
  (
  date DATE NOT NULL
  );
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How do I code for string AND the date?</p>