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Ever wondered how to change the output of the date format using MySQL?
If you are constantly logging you’re data it’s more likely that you will use DATETIME fields in a MySQL table field to track the dates of events.
What happens if you need to display the date in Human readable format? By using the DATE_FORMAT() function you’ll be able to manipulate the Date in almost any possible way.
MySQL Example using the DATE_FORMAT() function:
DATE_FORMAT(NOW(),‘%W, %M %e, %Y @ %h:%i %p’) will output ‘Sunday, September 20, 2008 @ 12:45 PM’
Letter Representations for the mySql DATE_FORMAT() function
| 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 |
| %u | Week (00..53), where Monday is the first day of the week |
| %V | Week (01..53), where Sunday is the first day of the week; used with %X |
| %v | Week (01..53), where Monday is the first day of the 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 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 |
