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MySQL FAQs - Introduction to SQL Date and Time Handling

By: FYIcenter.com

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(Continued from previous part...)

How To Convert Dates to Character Strings?

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

How To Convert Character Strings to Dates?

If you have a character string that represents a date, and you want to convert it into a date value, you can use the STR_TO_DATE(string, format) function. STR_TO_DATE() shares the same formatting codes with DATE_FORMAT() function. The tutorial exercise below shows you some good examples:

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

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

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

(Continued on next part...)

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