Table of Contents for

MySQL in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

This function returns the current system date in yyyy-mm-dd format. It will return the date in a yyyymmdd format (a numeric format) if it’s used as part of a numeric calculation. You can use the function in SELECT statements as shown here, in INSERT and UPDATE statements to set a value, or in a WHERE clause. CURDATE() is synonymous with CURRENT_DATE(); see its definition next for more details. Here is an example:

SELECT CURDATE() AS Today,
CURDATE() + 1 AS Tomorrow;
ow;

+------------+----------+
| Today      | Tomorrow |
+------------+----------+
| 2007-01-15 | 20070116 |
+------------+----------+

Because the second use of the function here involves a numeric calculation, tomorrow’s date is displayed without dashes. If you only want to convert a date to the numeric format, just add 0. To keep the format the same, use this function together with a function such as ADDDATE().