MySQL DATE_FORMAT() Function

Definition and Usage

The DATE_FORMAT() function is used to display date/time data in different formats.

DATE_FORMAT(date,format)

Where date is a valid date and format specifies the output format for the date/time.

The formats that can be used are:

Format	Description
%a	Abbreviated weekday name (Sun-Sat)
%b	Abbreviated month name (Jan-Dec)
%c	Month, numeric (0-12)
%D	Day of month with English suffix (0th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, …)
%d	Day of month, numeric (00-31)
%e	Day of 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)
%U	Week (00-53) where Sunday is the first day of week
%u	Week (00-53) where Monday is the first day of week
%V	Week (01-53) where Sunday is the first day of week, used with %X
%v	Week (01-53) where Monday is the first day of week, used with %x
%W	Weekday name (Sunday-Saturday)
%w	Day of the week (0=Sunday, 6=Saturday)
%X	Year for the week where Sunday is the first day of week, four digits, used with %V
%x	Year for the week where Monday is the first day of week, four digits, used with %v
%Y	Year, numeric, four digits
%y	Year, numeric, two digits

The following script uses the DATE_FORMAT() function to display different formats. We will use the NOW() function to get the current date/time:

DATE_FORMAT(NOW(),'%b %d %Y %h:%i %p')
DATE_FORMAT(NOW(),'%m-%d-%Y')
DATE_FORMAT(NOW(),'%d %b %y')
DATE_FORMAT(NOW(),'%d %b %Y %T:%f')

The result would look something like this:

Nov 04 2014 11:45 PM
11-04-2014
04 Nov 14
04 Nov 2014 11:45:34:243