How To Convert Dates to Character Strings

Q

How To Convert Dates to Character Strings? - MySQL FAQs - Introduction to SQL Date and Time Handling

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A

You can convert dates to character strings using the DATE_FORMAT(date, format) function. MySQL supports the following basic formatting codes:

  • %a Abbreviated weekday name (Sun..Sat)
  • %b Abbreviated month name (Jan..Dec)
  • %c Month, numeric (0..12)
  • %D Day of the month with English suffix (0th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd,...)
  • %d Day of the month, numeric (00..31)
  • %e Day of the month, numeric (0..31)
  • %f Microseconds (000000..999999)
  • %H Hour (00..23)
  • %h Hour (01..12)
  • %I Hour (01..12)
  • %i Minutes, numeric (00..59)
  • %j Day of year (001..366)
  • %k Hour (0..23)
  • %l Hour (1..12)
  • %M Month name (January..December)
  • %m Month, numeric (00..12)
  • %p AM or PM
  • %r Time, 12-hour (hh:mm:ss followed by AM or PM)
  • %S Seconds (00..59)
  • %s Seconds (00..59)
  • %T Time, 24-hour (hh:mm:ss)
  • %W Weekday name (Sunday..Saturday)
  • %w Day of the week (0=Sunday..6=Saturday)
  • %Y Year, numeric, four digits
  • %y Year, numeric (two digits)

The tutorial exercise below shows you some good examples:

SELECT DATE_FORMAT('1997-01-31', '%W, %M %e, %Y') FROM DUAL;
   Friday, January 31, 1997

SELECT DATE_FORMAT('1997-01-31 09:26:50.000123', 
   '%W, %M %e, %Y, at %h:%i:%s %p') FROM DUAL;
   Friday, January 31, 1997, at 09:26:50 AM                                   |

SELECT DATE_FORMAT('1997-01-31 09:26:50.000123', 
   '%d-%b-%Y %H:%i:%s.%f') FROM DUAL;
   31-Jan-1997 09:26:50.000123

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