MySQL DATE_FORMAT() function
DATE_FORMAT() function
MySQL DATE_FORMAT() formats a date as specified in the argument. A list of format specifiers given bellow may be used to format a date. The ‘%’ is required before the format specifier characters.
Syntax:
DATE_FORMAT(date,format)
Arguments:
Name | Description |
---|---|
date | A date. |
format | Indicates how to format a date. |
Syntax Diagram:

MySQL Version: 5.6
Table of format specifiers
Name | 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 |
Video Presentation:
Pictorial Presentation:

Example: MySQL DATE_FORMAT() function
select date_format(date, '%a %D %b %Y')
as formatted_date
from table_name;
Where date is the name of your date field, and formatted_date is a column alias which you can use as a column heading.
Example Date: 11th February 2011 Replace date with the name of your date field... |
|
date_format String | Example |
---|---|
'%Y-%m-%d' | 2011-02-11 |
'%e/%c/%Y' | 11/2/2011 UK |
'%c/%e/%Y' | 2/11/2011 US |
'%d/%m/%Y' | 11/02/2011 UK |
'%m/%d/%Y' | 02/11/2011 US |
'%e/%c/%Y %H:%i' | 11/2/2011 12:30 UK |
'%c/%e/%Y %H:%i' | 2/11/2011 12:30 US |
'%d/%m/%Y %H:%i' | 11/02/2011 12:30 UK |
'%m/%d/%Y %H:%i' | 02/11/2011 12:30 US |
'%e/%c/%Y %T' | 11/2/2011 12:30:10 UK |
'%c/%e/%Y %T' | 2/11/2011 12:30:10 US |
'%d/%m/%Y %T' | 11/02/2011 12:30:10 UK |
'%m/%d/%Y %T' | 02/11/2011 12:30:10 US |
'%a %D %b %Y' | Fri 11th Feb 2011 |
'%a %D %b %Y %H:%i' | Fri 11th Feb 2011 12:30 |
'%a %D %b %Y %T' | Fri 11th Feb 2011 12:30:10 |
'%a %b %e %Y' | Fri Feb 11 2011 |
'%a %b %e %Y %H:%i' | Fri Feb 11 2011 12:30 |
'%a %b %e %Y %T' | Fri Feb 11 2011 12:30:10 |
'%W %D %M %Y' | Friday 11th February 2011 |
'%W %D %M %Y %H:%i' | Friday 11th February 2011 12:30 |
'%W %D %M %Y %T' | Friday 11th February 2011 12:30:10 |
'%l:%i %p %b %e, %Y' | 12:30 PM Feb 11, 2011 |
'%M %e, %Y' | February 11, 2011 |
The following statement will format the specified datetime 2008-05-15 22:23:00 according to the format specifier %W %D %M %Y. Here date has been formatted with week day name, day of the month with english suffix, month name and year in numeric.
Code:
SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2008-05-15 22:23:00', '%W %D %M %Y');
Sample Output:
mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2008-05-15 22:23:00', '%W %D %M %Y'); +---------------------------------------------------+ | DATE_FORMAT('2008-05-15 22:23:00', '%W %D %M %Y') | +---------------------------------------------------+ | Thursday 15th May 2008 | +---------------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec)
PHP script:
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>example-DATE_FORMAT-function - php mysql examples | w3resource</title>
<meta name="description" content="example-DATE_FORMAT-function - php mysql examples | w3resource">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.5/css/bootstrap.min.css">
</head>
<body>
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<h2>Calculating datetime using MySQL:</h2>
<table class='table table-bordered'>
<tr>
<th>Calculated date</th>
</tr>
<?php
$hostname="your_hostname";
$username="your_username";
$password="your_password";
$db = "your_dbname";
$dbh = new PDO("mysql:host=$hostname;dbname=$db", $username, $password);
foreach($dbh->query('SELECT DATE_FORMAT("2008-05-15 22:23:00", "%W %D %M %Y") as Calculated_Date') as $row) {
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $row['Calculated_Date'] . "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
?>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
JSP script:
<%@page contentType="text/html" pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
<%@ page import="java.sql.*" %>
<%@ page import="java.io.*" %>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>example-date_format-function</title>
</head>
<body>
<%
try {
Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver").newInstance();
String Host = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/w3resour_bookinfo";
Connection connection = null;
Statement statement = null;
ResultSet rs = null;
connection = DriverManager.getConnection(Host, "root", "datasoft123");
statement = connection.createStatement();
String Data = "SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2008-05-15 22:23:00', '%W %D %M %Y') as Calculated_Date";
rs = statement.executeQuery(Data);
%>
<TABLE border="1">
<tr width="10" bgcolor="#9979">
<td>Calculated date</td>
</tr>
<%
while (rs.next()) {
%>
<TR>
<TD><%=rs.getString("Calculated_Date")%></TD>
</TR>
<% } %>
</table>
<%
rs.close();
statement.close();
connection.close();
} catch (Exception ex) {
out.println("Can’t connect to database.");
}
%>
</body>
</html>
Example: DATE_FORMAT() function with (%r) specifier
The following statement will format the specified datetime 2008-05-15 22:23:00 according to the format specifier %r. Here the function returns the time in 12-hour format followed by AM or PM.
Code:
SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2008-05-15 22:23:00', '%r');
Sample Output:
mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2008-05-15 22:23:00', '%r'); +------------------------------------------+ | DATE_FORMAT('2008-05-15 22:23:00', '%r') | +------------------------------------------+ | 10:23:00 PM | +------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
PHP script:
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>example1-DATE_FORMAT-function - php mysql examples | w3resource</title>
<meta name="description" content="example1-DATE_FORMAT-function - php mysql examples | w3resource">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.5/css/bootstrap.min.css">
</head>
<body>
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<h2>Calculating datetime using MySQL:</h2>
<table class='table table-bordered'>
<tr>
<th>Calculated date</th>
</tr>
<?php
$hostname="your_hostname";
$username="your_username";
$password="your_password";
$db = "your_dbname";
$dbh = new PDO("mysql:host=$hostname;dbname=$db", $username, $password);
foreach($dbh->query('SELECT DATE_FORMAT("2008-05-15 22:23:00", "%r")') as $row) {
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $row['DATE_FORMAT("2008-05-15 22:23:00", "%r")'] . "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
?>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Example: DATE_FORMAT() function using table
The following statement will format the specified ‘ord_date’ column from purchase table according to the format specifier %W %D %M %Y and display all the rows.
Sample table: purchase
Code:
SELECT invoice_no,ord_date, DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,'%W %D %M %Y')
FROM purchase;
Sample Output:
mysql> SELECT invoice_no,ord_date,DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,'%W %D %M %Y') -> FROM purchase; +------------+------------+-------------------------------------+ | invoice_no | ord_date | DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,'%W %D %M %Y') | +------------+------------+-------------------------------------+ | INV0001 | 2008-07-06 | Sunday 6th July 2008 | | INV0002 | 2008-08-09 | Saturday 9th August 2008 | | INV0003 | 2008-09-15 | Monday 15th September 2008 | | INV0004 | 2007-08-22 | Wednesday 22nd August 2007 | | INV0005 | 2007-06-25 | Monday 25th June 2007 | | INV0006 | 2007-09-20 | Thursday 20th September 2007 | +------------+------------+-------------------------------------+ 6 rows in set (0.09 sec)
PHP script:
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>example2-DATE_FORMAT-function - php mysql examples | w3resource</title>
<meta name="description" content="example2-DATE_FORMAT-function - php mysql examples | w3resource">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.5/css/bootstrap.min.css">
</head>
<body>
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<h2>A list of invoice no, and order date. Last column shows the order date in weekday name-day of the month-month-year format:</h2>
<table class='table table-bordered'>
<tr>
<th>Invoice no</th><th>Order date</th><th>DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,'%W %D %M %Y')</th>
</tr>
<?php
$hostname="your_hostname";
$username="your_username";
$password="your_password";
$db = "your_dbname";
$dbh = new PDO("mysql:host=$hostname;dbname=$db", $username, $password);
foreach($dbh->query('SELECT invoice_no,ord_date,
DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,"%W %D %M %Y")
FROM purchase') as $row) {
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $row['invoice_no'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['ord_date'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,"%W %D %M %Y")'] . "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
?>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Example: DATE_FORMAT() function with where
The following statement will format the specified ‘ord_date’ column from purchase table according to the format specifier %W %D %M %Y and returns those orders which had been placed after 2007.
Sample table: purchase
Code:
SELECT invoice_no,ord_date,
DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,'%W %D %M %Y')
FROM purchase
WHERE DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,' %Y')>2007;
Sample Output:
mysql> SELECT invoice_no,ord_date, DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,'%W %D %M %Y') -> FROM purchase -> WHERE DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,' %Y')>2007; +------------+------------+-------------------------------------+ | invoice_no | ord_date | DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,'%W %D %M %Y') | +------------+------------+-------------------------------------+ | INV0001 | 2008-07-06 | Sunday 6th July 2008 | | INV0002 | 2008-08-09 | Saturday 9th August 2008 | | INV0003 | 2008-09-15 | Monday 15th September 2008 | +------------+------------+-------------------------------------+ 3 rows in set (0.01 sec)
PHP script:
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>example3-DATE_FORMAT-function - php mysql examples | w3resource</title>
<meta name="description" content="example3-DATE_FORMAT-function - php mysql examples | w3resource">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.5/css/bootstrap.min.css">
</head>
<body>
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<h2>A list of invoice no, and order date. Last column shows the order date in weekday name-day of the month-month-year format. All the orders listed here are placed after year 2007:</h2>
<table class='table table-bordered'>
<tr>
<th>Invoice no</th><th>Order date</th><th>DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,'%W %D %M %Y')</th>
</tr>
<?php
$hostname="your_hostname";
$username="your_username";
$password="your_password";
$db = "your_dbname";
$dbh = new PDO("mysql:host=$hostname;dbname=$db", $username, $password);
foreach($dbh->query('SELECT invoice_no,ord_date,
DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,"%W %D %M %Y")
FROM purchase
WHERE DATE_FORMAT(ord_date," %Y")>2007') as $row) {
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $row['invoice_no'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['ord_date'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['DATE_FORMAT(ord_date,"%W %D %M %Y")'] . "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
?>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
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