title: MySQL alter table and convert data from text to datetime
body: <p>I have a table with a column date but it is stored as text.</p>
  
  <p>Now I need to extract data based on date and I'm thinking I need to alter the column type to datetime, but how can I do that without losing data? My text records are in format dd-MM-YYYY hh:mm</p>
  
  <p>If I just change the column type the data I lose all data (it is filled with zeros).</p>