Date Formatting Functions Mysql

STR_TO_DATE(str,format)

It takes a string str and a format string format. STR_TO_DATE() returns a DATETIME value if the format string contains both date and time parts, or a DATE or TIME value if the string contains only date or time parts. If the date, time, or datetime value extracted from str is illegal, STR_TO_DATE() returns NULL and produces a warning. 



mysql> SELECT STR_TO_DATE('01,5,2013','%d,%m,%Y');
        -> '2013-05-01'
mysql> SELECT STR_TO_DATE('May 1, 2013','%M %d,%Y');
        -> '2013-05-01'

DATE_FORMAT(date,format)
        

Formats the date value according to the format string.

mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2009-10-04 22:23:00', '%W %M %Y');
        -> 'Sunday October 2009'
mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2007-10-04 22:23:00', '%H:%i:%s');
        -> '22:23:00'