The DATE() function takes a datetime expression as input and returns only the date component.

Syntax:

SELECT DATE (expression);

• The DATE() function takes the date or datetime expression as a parameter or argument and returns the date component from the expression. It only takes one argument or parameter and returns null if the expression is invalid or empty.

Example:

Let us take the datetime as ‘2024-03-15 01:05:46‘.

SELECT DATE ('2024-03-15 01:05:46') as date_component;

Output:

Explanation: From the above output, we can observe that only the date component or part from the datetime string is extracted and returned. Similarly, if we provide only the date as a parameter or argument to the date function, the date component is returned i.e., the argument itself is returned as it is the date.

MySQL is a very popular open-source and free database server that is ideal for small and large applications and is a relational database management system where SQL (Structured Query Language) queries or statements are used to manage and manipulate the data.

MySQL provides many built-in functions like string, date, and numeric functions. Date functions allow you to operate on the date strings like getting the current date, calculating the difference between two dates, extracting the date, year, month, hour, or time component from the date, etc. These built-in functions help you to perform tasks and operations on ‘Date strings’ easily.

MySQL Strips Time Component from Datetime

Now, extracting only date or time from date can be performed easily by using some built-in functions in MySQL. To extract only the Date component from datetime we can use the following functions,

• Using DATE() function
• Using CAST() function
• Using DATE_FORMAT() function

In this article, we explore three essential methods—DATE(), CAST(), and DATE_FORMAT()—for extracting date components from datetime strings in MySQL effortlessly.