Question

I am trying select the max timestamp value for a field that contains timestamp values, but is actually a text field. Before you say it, I can’t change the field type because the app that populates it is not changeable. It’s annoying, I know.

The format of the Timestamp is

Wed Mar 02 13:28:59 CST 2011 -> this is actually a text value in MYSQL

Here’s my attempt:

SELECT DISTINCT MAX(STR_TO_DATE(`Timestamp`, '%d, %m, %Y')) FROM `table`

‘Timestamp’ is referring to the column called Timestamp.

This just returns NULL values for the timestamp.
Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

This should work for you, also have a look at http://www.w3schools.com/sql/func_date_format.asp

SELECT DISTINCT MAX(STR_To_DATE(`Timestamp`,'%a %b %d %H:%i:%s CST %Y')) 
FROM `table`;

Test case example:

SET @v = 'Wed Mar 02 13:28:59 CST 201';

SELECT STR_To_DATE(@v, '%a %b %d %H:%i:%s CST %Y');