MySQL DATE() Function with examples

The MySQL DATE() function is a built-in function you use to extract just the date portion from a DATE or DATETIME value. Learn how to use the DATE() function in this blog post…

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MySQL DATE() Function Syntax

The MySQL DATE() function accepts 1 argument and has a simple syntax:

DATE(date or datetime expression)

In this query on the Sakila database ‘category’ table, we can see using the DATE() with the ‘last_update’ column as the argument, returns just the date portion:

mysql> SELECT last_update, DATE(last_update)
    -> FROM category
    -> LIMIT 5;
+---------------------+-------------------+
| last_update         | DATE(last_update) |
+---------------------+-------------------+
| 2006-02-15 04:46:27 | 2006-02-15        |
| 2006-02-15 04:46:27 | 2006-02-15        |
| 2006-02-15 04:46:27 | 2006-02-15        |
| 2006-02-15 04:46:27 | 2006-02-15        |
| 2006-02-15 04:46:27 | 2006-02-15        |
+---------------------+-------------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

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Josh Otwell has a passion to grow as a PHP Developer, SQL expert, and technical blogger/writer.

Disclaimer: The majority of examples in this post, are performed in a personal development/learning workstation environment and should not be considered production quality or ready. Your particular goals and needs may vary. Like always, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. My opinions are my own.

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