120

How do I specify to mySQL's MONTH() function to return '08' instead of 8 in this query?

I'd like the sort to work datewise. Currently getting results for date like

2006-9
2007-1
2007-10
2007-11

current query:

SELECT COUNT(*), CONCAT(YEAR(`datetime_added`), '-', MONTH(`datetime_added`)) as date FROM `person` WHERE (email = '' OR email IS NULL) 
GROUP BY date 
ORDER BY date ASC
1
  • Current ordering seems to be OK ..... 😵😕😵😕
    – Luuk
    Commented Jul 2 at 19:31

6 Answers 6

269

Use the following instead:

DATE_FORMAT(`datetime_added`,'%Y-%m')

Explanation:

DATE_FORMAT() function lets you format the date anyway you like using specifiers described in the table below (taken verbatim from documentation). So a format string '%Y-%m' means: "A full year (4 digits), followed by a dash (-), followed by a two-digit month number".

Note that you can specify the language used for day/month names by setting lc_time_names system variable. Extremely useful. Refer to documentation for more details.

Specifier Description
%a Abbreviated weekday name (Sun..Sat)
%b Abbreviated month name (Jan..Dec)
%c Month, numeric (0..12)
%D Day of the month with English suffix (0th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, …)
%d Day of the month, numeric (00..31)
%e Day of the month, numeric (0..31)
%f Microseconds (000000..999999)
%H Hour (00..23)
%h Hour (01..12)
%I Hour (01..12)
%i Minutes, numeric (00..59)
%j Day of year (001..366)
%k Hour (0..23)
%l Hour (1..12)
%M Month name (January..December)
%m Month, numeric (00..12)
%p AM or PM
%r Time, 12-hour (hh:mm:ss followed by AM or PM)
%S Seconds (00..59)
%s Seconds (00..59)
%T Time, 24-hour (hh:mm:ss)
%U Week (00..53), where Sunday is the first day of the week; WEEK() mode 0
%u Week (00..53), where Monday is the first day of the week; WEEK() mode 1
%V Week (01..53), where Sunday is the first day of the week; WEEK() mode 2; used with %X
%v Week (01..53), where Monday is the first day of the week; WEEK() mode 3; used with %x
%W Weekday name (Sunday..Saturday)
%w Day of the week (0=Sunday..6=Saturday)
%X Year for the week where Sunday is the first day of the week, numeric, four digits; used with %V
%x Year for the week, where Monday is the first day of the week, numeric, four digits; used with %v
%Y Year, numeric, four digits
%y Year, numeric (two digits)
%% A literal % character
%x x, for any “x” not listed above
6
  • 10
    While not what he asked, this seems to answer what he should have asked.
    – user610217
    Commented Aug 12, 2011 at 17:15
  • Why can day of month be 0?
    – SOFe
    Commented Feb 4, 2017 at 14:00
  • 1
    Because 0000-00-00 is a valid date (depending on settings)
    – Mchl
    Commented Feb 4, 2017 at 14:06
  • 3
    @SOFe > Ranges for the month and day specifiers begin with zero due to the fact that MySQL permits the storing of incomplete dates such as '2014-00-00'. dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/…
    – kio21
    Commented Dec 7, 2018 at 6:33
  • yes, but the author asked for how to let MONTH() return month number with leading zero and didn't asked how to use date format. Commented Jul 23, 2020 at 7:17
43

You can use padding like

SELECT
    COUNT(*), 
    CONCAT(YEAR(`datetime_added`), '-', LPAD(MONTH(`datetime_added`), 2, '0')) as date 
FROM `person` 
WHERE (email = '' OR email IS NULL) 
GROUP BY date 
ORDER BY date ASC
1
  • 1
    Met the need in hive. DATE_FORMAT() function is not supported in hive. Your answer helps. Commented Nov 29, 2016 at 3:37
7

MONTH() returns an integer, so of course there's no leading zero. You will need to convert it to a string, left-pad the '0' and take the last 2 characters.

0
6
DATE_FORMAT(`datetime_added`,'%Y - %m')
1
  • 1
    I believe without spaces: '%Y-%m'
    – SrAxi
    Commented May 31, 2017 at 14:12
1

Using the LPAD function also works

LPAD(MONTH(your_date_column_here),2,'0')

See example below using current date

enter image description here

1
  • Yep, that's what Dani's answer was in 2011. Commented Jun 24, 2021 at 14:04
0

Please use the following to get two digit month:

DATE_FORMAT(CURRENT_DATE(),"%m")

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