Question

A mysql query is returning unexpected. I’m trying to concatenate a few strings containing date queries like so:

mysql> select month(timestamp) +'-'+ day(timestamp) + '-' + 
       year(timestamp) as date FROM table ORDER BY timestamp DESC LIMIT 1;

and I’m getting a 4 digit result, which I assume is the sum of the expected result:

+------+
| date |
+------+
| 2035 |
+------+

I’ve also tried casting each one as CHAR which didn’t work:

mysql> select CAST(month(timestamp) as CHAR) +'-'+ CAST(day(timestamp) as CHAR) + '-' + 
CAST(year(timestamp) as CHAR) as date FROM table ORDER BY timestamp DESC LIMIT 1;

Could someone let me know what I’m doing wrong? … and I guess how to fix it would be nice too 🙂

Answer 1

In MySQL, use CONCAT_WS

CONCAT_WS('-', month(timestamp),day(timestamp),year(timestamp))

query,

SELECT CONCAT_WS('-', month(timestamp),day(timestamp),year(timestamp)) AS DATE
FROM   tablename
ORDER  BY timestamp DESC 
LIMIT  1

or use DATE_FORMAT

SELECT DATE_FORMAT(timestamp, '%m-%d-%Y') AS DATE
FROM   Table1
ORDER  BY timestamp DESC 
LIMIT  1

• SQLFiddle Demo

Other(s):

• DATE_Format
• CONCAT_WS