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MySQL SYSDATE Function

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MySQL SYSDATE function is a Date Function, which returns the current system Date and Time in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS or YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.uuuu format.

In this article, we will show you, How to use this MySQL SYSDATE function to find the current date and time with an example.

MySQL SYSDATE Syntax

The basic syntax of the SYSDATE() Function in MySQL is as shown below:

SYSDATE();

MySQL SYSDATE function Example

The below shown query will show you the basic use of this SYSDATE function to return or find current date and time.

SELECT SYSDATE();

SELECT SYSDATE() AS 'Todays Date and Time';

SELECT SYSDATE() AS 'Date and Time';

OUTPUT

As you can see from the below screenshot, it returns current system date and Time in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format. Within the last two statements, we used the Alias Names.

MySQL SYSDATE Function 1

The following query will show you, what happens when we add or subtract value to this SYSDATE function output.

SELECT SYSDATE() + 0;

SELECT SYSDATE(), SYSDATE() + 5;

SELECT SYSDATE(), SYSDATE() - 5;

OUTPUT

MySQL SYSDATE Function 2

As you can see from the above screenshot, it added and subtracted those values to current system date and time. Next, it was displayed the DateTime in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS string format

MySQL SYSDATE function Example 2

In most cases, the NOW and SYSTEM functions returns the same output. They differ in the execution time. I mean, SYSDATE returns the value when executes, NOW return the constant time. Let us see one example.

SELECT SYSDATE(), NOW();

SELECT NOW(), SLEEP(2), NOW();

SELECT SYSDATE(), SLEEP(2), SYSDATE();

OUTPUT

MySQL SYSDATE Function 3

MySQL SYSDATE Example 3

In this example, we will show you, how to use this SYSDATE function on table data. Here, we are using datediff function to find the difference between current system DateTime and the Hire Date column value.

For this MySQL SYSDATE demonstration, we are using Workbench to write a query against the customer database.

SELECT EmpID,
       FirstName,
       LastName,
       Occupation,
       YearlyIncome,
       Sales,
       HireDate,
       DATEDIFF(SYSDATE(), HireDate) AS Difference
 FROM `MySQL Tutorial`.customer;

OUTPUT

MySQL SYSDATE Function 4

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