st: Column types for ODBC

[Michael Ewens <m@betanaught.com>]

Dear all:

I am inserting columns of Stata-formatted dates into an ODBC database 
(MySQL).  If one runs

--
gen date = mdy(month,year,date)
format date %td
odbc insert, dsn(datasource) t(test) u(u) create sqlshow
--

Stata creates a 'float' column in the new table.  If one wants to 
subsequently use this new table outside of Stata, the date information 
is effectively lost.  Is there a way to force the create option to use 
particularl column types?

My current workaround first converts the 'date' variable to a string 
'YYYYMMDD.'  The next step could be to run something like

--
odbc exec("ALTER TABLE test MODIFY date DATE"), dsn(datasource) u(u)
--

Unfortunately, this approach requires a line of code for all the date 
variables in the data.  Is there a better approach to dealing with dates 
and odbc?  Ideally, the 'datestring' option available for 'odbc load' 
would be available for 'odbc insert'.

Best,
Michael
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