Deleting rows in a database using a date-condition

Question

Hi - Can someone help me with this? I wan't to delete old data from a database. More specific, delete all data from ex 2002.(the year to be deleted is coming from a textfield) The date is stored in the database like this; dd.mm.yyyy.
So a delete statement would be something like this: "delete from mytable where date = 2002". Obviously this doesn't work. The problem is how to syncronize the dates i.e have the same types. Any suggestions??
I'm using a jdbc.odbc bridge.

Answer 1

Oh, the date in the database IS a Date type? (You implied it was text when you said it was in the form mm.dd.yyyy) If that's the case, then you can do this (this is simplistic and you really should use PreparedStatements instead, but for brevity's sake):
String year = (input from user)
String targetDate = year + "0101";
String SQL = "delete from myTable where date <= '" + targetDate + "'";
// execute SQL here