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Is there a MySQL function which can be used to convert a Unix timestamp into a human readable date? I have one field where I save Unix times and now I want to add another field for human readable dates.

T. Zengerink
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King Julien
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    [Date and time functions](http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/date-and-time-functions.html) in the mySQL manual – Pekka Jun 07 '11 at 15:25
  • Possible duplicate of [How to convert timestamp to datetime in MySQL?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5362874/how-to-convert-timestamp-to-datetime-in-mysql) – Álvaro González Jan 29 '16 at 10:24

9 Answers9

471

Use FROM_UNIXTIME():

SELECT
  FROM_UNIXTIME(timestamp) 
FROM 
  your_table;

See also: MySQL documentation on FROM_UNIXTIME().

Brad
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CristiC
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132

What's missing from the other answers (as of this writing) and not directly obvious is that from_unixtime can take a second parameter to specify the format like so:

SELECT
  from_unixtime(timestamp, '%Y %D %M %H:%i:%s')
FROM 
  your_table
Community
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User
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    Very minor issue, but %h is hours in 12-hour format, which then requires %p for completeness (AM/PM). Or %H gives hours in 24-hour format. – tlum May 30 '15 at 16:14
31

I think what you're looking for is FROM_UNIXTIME()

Ted Hopp
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22

Need a unix timestamp in a specific timezone?

Here's a one liner if you have quick access to the mysql cli:

mysql> select convert_tz(from_unixtime(1467095851), 'UTC', 'MST') as 'local time';

+---------------------+
| local time          |
+---------------------+
| 2016-06-27 23:37:31 |
+---------------------+

Replace 'MST' with your desired timezone. I live in Arizona thus the conversion from UTC to MST.

elbowlobstercowstand
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7

Why bother saving the field as readable? Just us AS

SELECT theTimeStamp, FROM_UNIXTIME(theTimeStamp) AS readableDate
               FROM theTable
               WHERE theTable.theField = theValue;

EDIT: Sorry, we store everything in milliseconds not seconds. Fixed it.

Alexis Wilke
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josh.trow
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4

You can use the DATE_FORMAT function. Here's a page with examples, and the patterns you can use to select different date components.

Briguy37
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1

Easy and simple way:

select from_unixtime(column_name, '%Y-%m-%d') from table_name

Akash gupta
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1

Since I found this question not being aware, that mysql always stores time in timestamp fields in UTC but will display (e.g. phpmyadmin) in local time zone I would like to add my findings.

I have an automatically updated last_modified field, defined as:

`last_modified` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

Looking at it with phpmyadmin, it looks like it is in local time, internally it is UTC

SET time_zone = '+04:00'; // or '+00:00' to display dates in UTC or 'UTC' if time zones are installed.
SELECT last_modified, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(last_modified), from_unixtime(UNIX_TIMESTAMP(last_modified), '%Y-%c-%d %H:%i:%s'), CONVERT_TZ(last_modified,@@session.time_zone,'+00:00') as UTC FROM `table_name`

In any constellation, UNIX_TIMESTAMP and 'as UTC' are always displayed in UTC time.

Run this twice, first without setting the time_zone.

Gunnar Bernstein
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1

If you would like to convert time AND display the data in a specific format you can use this string.

date_format(convert_tz(from_unixtime(TIMESTAMP), 'UTC', 'DESIRED TZ'), '%m/%d/%y')

where you add convert_tz to a date_format string. the %m/%d/%y being month/day/year. you can find all the specific formats here https://www.w3schools.com/sql/func_mysql_date_format.asp

JoSSte
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SuspectT3
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