Why is user.joindate a 'int' field?

[telc]

I am trying to format the sql but I can't because joindate, is a 'int' field

mysql> select DATE_FORMAT(joindate, '%m.%d.%Y') AS joindate from user limit 0,1;
+----------+
| joindate |
+----------+
| NULL |


Why would the unix timestamp be stored in a 'int' field?

[filburt1]

I for one have always wondered why stuff isn't stored in the database as TIMESTAMP(14) which has conversion functions built into MySQL...

[Freddie Bingham]

Using INT is more portable for other database types.

[telc]

Do you know anyway to format it using Mysql since its in an 'int' field? I want to write a query they gives my the average # of new users a day. I wanted to be able to select it in the format MM-DD-YYYY then group by it.

[MattR]

DATETIME is a standard datatype, but unfortunately MySQL stores it in a non-standard way. :(