title: MySQL Type for Storing a Year: Smallint or Varchar or Date?
body: <p>I will be storing a year in a MySQL table:  Is it better to store this as a smallint or varchar?  I figure that since it's not a full date, that the date format shouldn't be an answer but I'll include that as well.</p>
  
  <p>Smallint? varchar(4)? date? something else?</p>
  
  <p>Examples:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>2008</p></li>
  <li><p>1992</p></li>
  <li><p>2053</p></li>
  </ul>