Get closest date from MySQL table

Question

I need to get the closest date to current date from a MySQL table.

This is my table:

id        | date          | name
1         | 2012-10-29    | test
2         | 2009-11-31    | test

So if the query was run today, it would return 1 | 2012-10-29 | test

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

SELECT 
  * 
FROM 
  your_table 
ORDER BY 
  ABS(DATEDIFF(NOW(), `date`))
LIMIT 1

Answer 2

select top 1 date from table
where date > now()
order by date desc

Answer 3

SELECT * FROM `your_table` WHERE ABS(DATEDIFF(`date`, NOW()));

Returns:

'1', '2012-10-29 00:00:00', 'test'