MySQL NOW Function

MySQL Now is one of the Date Functions, which returns the current Date and Time in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS or YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.uuu format. The basic syntax of the NOW Function is as shown below:

NOW();

MySQL NOW function Example

The following NOW method query shows you the basic use of this one to get the current DateTime.

SELECT NOW();
MySQL NOW function Example 1

As you can see from the above screenshot, it returns today’s date and Time in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format. Let us see another MySQL example of the Date method with an Alias Name.

SELECT NOW() AS 'Todays date and Time';
Example 2

The following MySQL NOW Function query explains to you what happens when we add value to this.

SELECT NOW() + 5;

SELECT NOW(), NOW() + 5;
Now Example 4

From the above screenshot, it added those values to the current datetime. I mean, seconds to the current date and time. Next, it displays the same in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS string format.

NOW Example 2

In this example, we show you how to use this Now function on columns. Here, we are using a datediff function to find the difference between now and the Hire Date column value.

We use Workbench to write a query against the customer database for this demonstration.

SELECT EmpID,
       FirstName,
       LastName,
       Occupation,
       YearlyIncome,
       Sales,
       HireDate,
       DATEDIFF(NOW(), HireDate) AS Difference
 FROM customer;
MySQL Now Example 5

About Suresh

Suresh is the founder of TutorialGateway and a freelance software developer. He specialized in Designing and Developing Windows and Web applications. The experience he gained in Programming and BI integration, and reporting tools translates into this blog. You can find him on Facebook or Twitter.