Mysql question, selecting threads by date..

[Jelmertjee]

I'm creating a sort of archive and need to select threads by their created date, so I'm trying to use dateline. I know you can use vbdate() to turn it into a normal, usable date but I don't think this is any use because I can only select the raw dateline from the database, right?

Of course it's possible to match the date after quering but then I would need to query way too many threads... Does anybody have a solution for this, so you can already select the right threads with a query? Or just an explanation of how the dateline is determined??