Set format specifier in MySQL STR_TO_DATE() and convert string to date

Specify format specifier in STR_TO_DATE() method that convertes string to date. Following is the syntax −

select STR_TO_DATE(yourColumnName,'yourFormatSpecifier') from yourTableName;

Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable
-> (
-> AdmissionDate varchar(100)
-> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.55 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('01-12-2019');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.17 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('15-06-2019');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('21-01-2016');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.19 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

Output

This will produce the following output −

+---------------+
| AdmissionDate |
+---------------+
| 01-12-2019    |
| 15-06-2019    |
| 21-01-2016    |
+---------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query for STR_TO_DATE(). Here, we have set format specifier as well −

mysql> select STR_TO_DATE(AdmissionDate,'%d-%m-%Y') from DemoTable;

Output

This will produce the following output −

+---------------------------------------+
| STR_TO_DATE(AdmissionDate,'%d-%m-%Y') |
+---------------------------------------+
| 2019-12-01                            |
| 2019-06-15                            |
| 2016-01-21                            |
+---------------------------------------+
3 rows in set (0.04 sec)