MySQL date format

Question

When I make a table and create a field of type date in mysql, it stores date like 0000-00-00. Is it possible to change the format to 'd-m-Y'?

Answer 1

Go to MySQL Reference - 10.5. Data Type Storage Requirements

Search for: Storage Requirements for Date and Time Types

Dates are internally stored as A three-byte integer packed as DD + MM×32 + YYYY×16×32

But, if you select a date column for display, it has to be shown in some way, so it comes out as 0000-00-00. It is not stored as a char(10) with that specific format.

If, for display, you need to see a specific format, you can convert it to VARCHAR in a specific format using Date_Format(). However, bear in mind that if you are using the query in a programming tool, this is not what you want to do. You want the raw date value, for display purposes, there will be a similar formatting function from whatever programming environment you use.

As you can see from the reference in DATE_FORMAT, you will want to use '%d-%m-%Y', e.g.

SELECT col1, col2, DATE_FORMAT(datecolumn, '%d-%m-%Y') AS datecolumn, more1...
FROM sometable
....