datetime, date, and timestamp?

[wxdqz]

After reading the MySQL manual I get a bit confused about these dateformats. I am new to databases. I want to have a date in a column that I can compare and use for some transactions. I would like to find all columns for a specified year or month. I presume that date is the field type to use. What I really don't understand exactly is what the fields are for. My questions;

1. Are these fields different from strings in a way that you can more easily compary and extract strings?

2. Are they different in other ways?

3. Shall I use date for my purposes?

4. Do I have to update them manually?


Thanks / Henrik