What is the usage of the to_char function in MySQL?

There is no “to_char” function in MySQL, which is a function in the Oracle database. In MySQL, you can use the DATE_FORMAT function to achieve the same functionality as “to_char.” DATE_FORMAT function is used to format date or time data into a specified string format.

The syntax of the DATE_FORMAT function is as follows:

Display a date in a specific format using the function DATE_FORMAT.

The date refers to the date or time data to be formatted, while the format specifies the formatting string.

For example, to format a date field as a string in “YYYY-MM-DD” format, you can use the following statement:

Get the date in the format of year-month-day from the table.

This will return a string containing the year, month, and day of the date field.

Please note that the date and time formatting strings in MySQL may differ from the formatting strings used in the to_char function in Oracle. Therefore, when using the DATE_FORMAT function, it is necessary to write the formatting string according to MySQL’s date and time formatting rules.