NOW CURDATE CURTIME
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NOW()
CURDATE()
CURTIME()The Current Date and Time with NOW
NOW returns both the current date and time together as a single value, down to the second, making it the go-to function for timestamping exactly when a row was inserted or an event occurred.
Example: The Current Date and Time with NOW
SELECT NOW() AS current_datetime;The Current Date with CURDATE
CURDATE returns only today's date with no time component at all, which is the right choice when you care about which day something happened but the exact hour or minute is irrelevant, like a billing date.
Example: The Current Date with CURDATE
SELECT CURDATE() AS today;The Current Time with CURTIME
CURTIME returns only the current time with no date attached, useful for logging things like daily opening/closing hours or comparing against a recurring daily schedule rather than a specific calendar day.
Example: The Current Time with CURTIME
SELECT CURTIME() AS right_now;Saving Current Dates to Tables
These functions are commonly wired up as default column values, so MySQL automatically stamps new rows with the moment they were created without the application needing to calculate and send a timestamp itself.
Example: Saving Current Dates to Tables
CREATE TABLE logs (id INT, message TEXT, created_at DATETIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);
INSERT INTO logs (id, message) VALUES (1, 'User signed up');
SELECT * FROM logs;Simple Date Math with Intervals
You can add or subtract intervals directly against the current date, such as CURDATE() + INTERVAL 7 DAY, to compute things like a one-week deadline or trial expiration without manual date arithmetic in application code.
Example: Simple Date Math with Intervals
SELECT CURDATE() + INTERVAL 7 DAY AS trial_expires;- Using
NOW()when only the date is needed, so comparisons with aDATEcolumn fail on the time part. - Assuming
NOW()changes during a query, when it is fixed at the statement start (useSYSDATE()for the real time). - Forgetting the time zone of the server when the output differs from your local time.
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