MySQL date formats - difficulty Inserting a date

Looks like you've not encapsulated your string properly. Try this:

INSERT INTO custorder VALUES ('Kevin','yes'), STR_TO_DATE('1-01-2012', '%d-%m-%Y');

Alternatively, you can do the following but it is not recommended. Make sure that you use STR_TO-DATE it is because when you are developing web applications you have to explicitly convert String to Date which is annoying. Use first One.

INSERT INTO custorder VALUES ('Kevin','yes'), '2012-01-01';

I'm not confident that the above SQL is valid, however, and you may want to move the date part into the brackets. If you can provide the exact error you're getting, I might be able to more directly help with the issue.

Put the date in single quotes and move the parenthesis (after the 'yes') to the end:

INSERT INTO custorder 
  VALUES ('Kevin', 'yes' , STR_TO_DATE('1-01-2012', '%d-%m-%Y') ) ;
                        ^                                     ^
---parenthesis removed--|                and added here ------|

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But you can always use dates without STR_TO_DATE() function, just use the (Y-m-d) '20120101' or '2012-01-01' format. Check the MySQL docs: Date and Time Literals

INSERT INTO custorder 
  VALUES ('Kevin', 'yes', '2012-01-01') ;