How to insert a row with a timestamp “X days ago” in MySQL?

To insert a row like this use the following syntax, wherein we are using CURRENT_TIMESTAMP −

insert into yourTableName values(CURRENT_TIMESTAMP - INTERVAL ABS(RAND() * 100) DAY);

To understand the above syntax, let us create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable1983
   (
   DueDate timestamp
   );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable1983 values(CURRENT_TIMESTAMP - INTERVAL ABS(RAND() * 100) DAY);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable1983 values(CURRENT_TIMESTAMP - INTERVAL ABS(RAND() * 100) DAY);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable1983 values(CURRENT_TIMESTAMP - INTERVAL ABS(RAND() * 100) DAY);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select * from DemoTable1983;

This will produce the following output −

+---------------------+
| DueDate             |
+---------------------+
| 2019-12-10 19:35:43 |
| 2019-10-27 19:35:44 |
| 2019-11-10 19:35:45 |
+---------------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

The current date time is as follows −

mysql> select now();

This will produce the following output −

+---------------------+
| now()               |
+---------------------+
| 2019-12-18 19:36:17 |
+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)