[support] How to store/retreive date fields into/from MySql

Hi All I have a date field in my form. How do I store/retreive the value into/from MySQL. On google search, I saw people are suggesting to use either "int" or "datetime" type. Please suggest which one needs to be used. If I use int (I hope core uses int), while storing can I just store "form['values']['date1']" as %d and while retreivin, what are the related apis to convert back to date. Regards Austin.