Skip to content

DATE_FORMAT()

Description

Formats the date value according to the format string. If either argument is NULL, the function returns NULL.

DATE_FORMAT() returns a string with a character set and collation given by character_set_connection and collation_connection so that it can return month and weekday names containing non-ASCII characters.

Syntax

> DATE_FORMAT(date,format)

Arguments

Arguments Description
date Required. The date to be formatted.
format Required. The format to use. Can be one or a combination of the following values as the below table:

Format Specifier

Info

The specifiers shown in the following table may be used in the format string. The % character is required before format specifier characters. The specifiers apply to other functions as well as UNIX_TIMESTAMP().

Specifier Description
%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)
%U Week (00..53), where Sunday is the first day of the week; WEEK() mode 0
%u Week (00..53), where Monday is the first day of the week; WEEK() mode 1
%V Week (01..53), where Sunday is the first day of the week; WEEK() mode 2; used with %X
%v Week (01..53), where Monday is the first day of the week; WEEK() mode 3; 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 the week, numeric, four digits; used with %V
%x Year for the week, where Monday is the first day of the week, numeric, four digits; used with %v
%Y Year, numeric, four digits
%y Year, numeric (two digits)
%% A literal % character
%x x, for any "x" not listed above

Examples

```sql mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2009-10-04 22:23:00', '%W %M %Y'); +--------------------------------------------+ | date_format(2009-10-04 22:23:00, %W %M %Y) | +--------------------------------------------+ | Sunday October 2009 | +--------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec)

mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2007-10-04 22:23:00', '%H:%i:%s'); +--------------------------------------------+ | date_format(2007-10-04 22:23:00, %H:%i:%s) | +--------------------------------------------+ | 22:23:00 | +--------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.02 sec)

mysql> SELECT Date_format('1900-10-04 22:23:00', '%D %y %a %d %m %b %j'); +--------------------------------------------------------+ | date_format(1900-10-04 22:23:00, %D %y %a %d %m %b %j) | +--------------------------------------------------------+ | 4th 00 Thu 04 10 Oct 277 | +--------------------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec)

mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('1997-10-04 22:23:00', '%H %k %I %r %T %S %w'); +--------------------------------------------------------+ | date_format(1997-10-04 22:23:00, %H %k %I %r %T %S %w) | +--------------------------------------------------------+ | 22 22 10 10:23:00 PM 22:23:00 00 6 | +--------------------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec)

mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('1999-01-01', '%X %V'); +--------------------------------+ | date_format(1999-01-01, %X %V) | +--------------------------------+ | 1998 52 | +--------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) 

<!--SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2006-06-00', '%d');
ERROR 20301 (HY000): invalid input: invalid datatime value 2006-06-00-->

```sql
CREATE TABLE t2 (f1 DATETIME);
INSERT INTO t2 (f1) VALUES ('2005-01-01');
INSERT INTO t2 (f1) VALUES ('2005-02-01');

mysql> SELECT Date_format(f1, "%m") AS d1,
         Date_format(f1, "%m") AS d2
  FROM   t2
  ORDER  BY Date_format(f1, "%m");
  +------+------+
  | d1   | d2   |
  +------+------+
  | 01   | 01   |
  | 02   | 02   |
  +------+------+
  2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

```sql CREATE TABLE t5 (a int, b date); INSERT INTO t5 VALUES (1, '2000-02-05'), (2, '2000-10-08'), (3, '2005-01-03'), (4, '2007-09-01'), (5, '2022-01-01');

mysql> SELECT * FROM t5 WHERE b = Date_format('20000205', '%Y-%m-%d'); +------+------------+ | a | b | +------+------------+ | 1 | 2000-02-05 | +------+------------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM t5 WHERE b != Date_format('20000205', '%Y-%m-%d'); +------+------------+ | a | b | +------+------------+ | 2 | 2000-10-08 | | 3 | 2005-01-03 | | 4 | 2007-09-01 | | 5 | 2022-01-01 | +------+------------+ 4 rows in set (0.01 sec)

mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT("2009-01-01",'%W %d %M %Y') as valid_date; +--------------------------+ | valid_date | +--------------------------+ | Thursday 01 January 2009 | +--------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) ```

Constraints

The date type supports only yyyy-mm-dd and yyyymmdd for now.