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13 Functions and Operators

Expressions can be used at several points in SQL statements, such as in the ORDER BY or HAVING clauses of SELECT statements, in the WHERE clause of a SELECT, DELETE, or UPDATE statement, or in SET statements. Expressions can be written using literal values, column values, NULL, functions, and operators. This chapter describes the functions and operators that are allowed for writing expressions in MySQL.

An expression that contains NULL always produces a NULL value unless otherwise indicated in the documentation for a particular function or operator.

Note: By default, there must be no whitespace between a function name and the parenthesis following it. This helps the MySQL parser distinguish between function calls and references to tables or columns that happen to have the same name as a function. Spaces around function arguments are permitted, though.

You can tell the MySQL server to accept spaces after function names by starting it with the --sql-mode=IGNORE_SPACE option. Individual client programs can request this behavior by using the CLIENT_IGNORE_SPACE option for mysql_real_connect(). In either case, all function names will become reserved words. See section 5.2.2 The Server SQL Mode.

For the sake of brevity, most examples in this chapter display the output from the mysql program in abbreviated form. Instead of showing examples in this format:

mysql> SELECT MOD(29,9);
+-----------+
| mod(29,9) |
+-----------+
|         2 |
+-----------+
1 rows in set (0.00 sec)

This format is used instead:

mysql> SELECT MOD(29,9);
        -> 2

13.1 Operators

13.1.1 Parentheses

( ... )

Use parentheses to force the order of evaluation in an expression. For example:

mysql> SELECT 1+2*3;
        -> 7
mysql> SELECT (1+2)*3;
        -> 9

13.1.2 Comparison Operators

Comparison operations result in a value of 1 (TRUE), 0 (FALSE), or NULL. These operations work for both numbers and strings. Strings are automatically converted to numbers and numbers to strings as necessary.

MySQL performs comparisons using the following rules:

If one or both arguments are NULL, the result of the comparison is NULL, except for the NULL-safe <=> equality comparison operator.
If both arguments in a comparison operation are strings, they are compared as strings.
If both arguments are integers, they are compared as integers.
Hexadecimal values are treated as binary strings if not compared to a number.
If one of the arguments is a TIMESTAMP or DATETIME column and the other argument is a constant, the constant is converted to a timestamp before the comparison is performed. This is done to be more ODBC-friendly.
In all other cases, the arguments are compared as floating-point (real) numbers.

By default, string comparisons are not case sensitive and use the current character set (ISO-8859-1 Latin1 by default, which also works excellently for English).

The following examples illustrate conversion of strings to numbers for comparison operations:

mysql> SELECT 1 > '6x';
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT 7 > '6x';
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT 0 > 'x6';
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT 0 = 'x6';
        -> 1

Note that when you are comparing a string column with a number, MySQL can't use an index on the column to quickly look up the value. If str_col is an indexed string column, the index cannot be used when performing the lookup in the following statement:

SELECT * FROM tbl_name WHERE str_col=1;

The reason for this is that there are many different strings that may convert to the value 1: '1', ' 1', '1a' ...

=

Equal:

mysql> SELECT 1 = 0;
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT '0' = 0;
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT '0.0' = 0;
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT '0.01' = 0;
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT '.01' = 0.01;
        -> 1

<=>

NULL-safe equal. This operator performs an equality comparison like the = operator, but returns 1 rather than NULL if both operands are NULL, and 0 rather than NULL if one operand is NULL.

mysql> SELECT 1 <=> 1, NULL <=> NULL, 1 <=> NULL;
        -> 1, 1, 0
mysql> SELECT 1 = 1, NULL = NULL, 1 = NULL;
        -> 1, NULL, NULL

<>

!=

Not equal:

mysql> SELECT '.01' <> '0.01';
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT .01 <> '0.01';
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT 'zapp' <> 'zappp';
        -> 1

<=

Less than or equal:

mysql> SELECT 0.1 <= 2;
        -> 1

<

Less than:

mysql> SELECT 2 < 2;
        -> 0

>=

Greater than or equal:

mysql> SELECT 2 >= 2;
        -> 1

>

Greater than:

mysql> SELECT 2 > 2;
        -> 0

IS NULL

IS NOT NULL

Test whether a value is or is not NULL.

mysql> SELECT 1 IS NULL, 0 IS NULL, NULL IS NULL;
        -> 0, 0, 1
mysql> SELECT 1 IS NOT NULL, 0 IS NOT NULL, NULL IS NOT NULL;
        -> 1, 1, 0

To be able to work well with ODBC programs, MySQL supports the following extra features when using IS NULL:

You can find the row that contains the most recent AUTO_INCREMENT value by issuing a statement of the following form immediately after generating the value:
```
SELECT * FROM tbl_name WHERE auto_col IS NULL
```
This behavior can be disabled by setting SQL_AUTO_IS_NULL=0. See section 14.5.3.1 SET Syntax.
For DATE and DATETIME columns that are declared as NOT NULL, you can find the special date '0000-00-00' by using a statement like this:
```
SELECT * FROM tbl_name WHERE date_column IS NULL
```
This is needed to get some ODBC applications to work, because ODBC doesn't support a '0000-00-00' date.

expr BETWEEN min AND max

If expr is greater than or equal to min and expr is less than or equal to max, BETWEEN returns 1, otherwise it returns 0. This is equivalent to the expression (min <= expr AND expr <= max) if all the arguments are of the same type. Otherwise type conversion takes place, according to the rules described at the beginning of this section, but applied to all the three arguments. Note: Before MySQL 4.0.5, arguments were converted to the type of expr instead.

mysql> SELECT 1 BETWEEN 2 AND 3;
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT 'b' BETWEEN 'a' AND 'c';
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT 2 BETWEEN 2 AND '3';
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT 2 BETWEEN 2 AND 'x-3';
        -> 0

expr NOT BETWEEN min AND max

This is the same as NOT (expr BETWEEN min AND max).

GREATEST(X,Y,...)

Returns the largest (maximum-valued) argument. The arguments are compared using the same rules as for LEAST().

mysql> SELECT GREATEST(2,0);
        -> 2
mysql> SELECT GREATEST(34.0,3.0,5.0,767.0);
        -> 767.0
mysql> SELECT GREATEST('B','A','C');
        -> 'C'

Before MySQL 3.22.5, you can use MAX() instead of GREATEST().

expr IN (value,...)

Returns 1 if expr is any of the values in the IN list, else returns 0. If all values are constants, they are evaluated according to the type of expr and sorted. The search for the item then is done using a binary search. This means IN is very quick if the IN value list consists entirely of constants. If expr is a case-sensitive string expression, the string comparison is performed in case-sensitive fashion.

mysql> SELECT 2 IN (0,3,5,'wefwf');
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT 'wefwf' IN (0,3,5,'wefwf');
        -> 1

The number of values in the IN list is only limited by the max_allowed_packet value. To comply with the SQL standard, from MySQL 4.1 on IN returns NULL not only if the expression on the left hand side is NULL, but also if no match is found in the list and one of the expressions in the list is NULL. From MySQL 4.1 on, IN() syntax also is used to write certain types of subqueries. See section 14.1.8.3 Subqueries with ANY, IN, and SOME.

expr NOT IN (value,...)

This is the same as NOT (expr IN (value,...)).

ISNULL(expr)

If expr is NULL, ISNULL() returns 1, otherwise it returns 0.

mysql> SELECT ISNULL(1+1);
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT ISNULL(1/0);
        -> 1

Note that a comparison of NULL values using = will always be false!

COALESCE(value,...)

Returns the first non-NULL value in the list.

mysql> SELECT COALESCE(NULL,1);
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT COALESCE(NULL,NULL,NULL);
        -> NULL

INTERVAL(N,N1,N2,N3,...)

Returns 0 if N < N1, 1 if N < N2 and so on or -1 if N is NULL. All arguments are treated as integers. It is required that N1 < N2 < N3 < ... < Nn for this function to work correctly. This is because a binary search is used (very fast).

mysql> SELECT INTERVAL(23, 1, 15, 17, 30, 44, 200);
        -> 3
mysql> SELECT INTERVAL(10, 1, 10, 100, 1000);
        -> 2
mysql> SELECT INTERVAL(22, 23, 30, 44, 200);
        -> 0

LEAST(X,Y,...)

With two or more arguments, returns the smallest (minimum-valued) argument. The arguments are compared using the following rules.

If the return value is used in an INTEGER context or all arguments are integer-valued, they are compared as integers.
If the return value is used in a REAL context or all arguments are real-valued, they are compared as reals.
If any argument is a case-sensitive string, the arguments are compared as case-sensitive strings.
In other cases, the arguments are compared as case-insensitive strings.

mysql> SELECT LEAST(2,0);
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT LEAST(34.0,3.0,5.0,767.0);
        -> 3.0
mysql> SELECT LEAST('B','A','C');
        -> 'A'

Before MySQL 3.22.5, you can use MIN() instead of LEAST(). Note that the preceding conversion rules can produce strange results in some borderline cases:

mysql> SELECT CAST(LEAST(3600, 9223372036854775808.0) as SIGNED);
        -> -9223372036854775808

This happens because MySQL reads 9223372036854775808.0 in an integer context. The integer representation is not good enough to hold the value, so it wraps to a signed integer.

13.1.3 Logical Operators

In SQL, all logical operators evaluate to TRUE, FALSE, or NULL (UNKNOWN). In MySQL, these are implemented as 1 (TRUE), 0 (FALSE), and NULL. Most of this is common to different SQL database servers, although some servers may return any non-zero value for TRUE.

NOT

!

Logical NOT. Evaluates to 1 if the operand is 0, to 0 if the operand is non-zero, and NOT NULL returns NULL.

mysql> SELECT NOT 10;
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT NOT 0;
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT NOT NULL;
        -> NULL
mysql> SELECT ! (1+1);
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT ! 1+1;
        -> 1

The last example produces 1 because the expression evaluates the same way as (!1)+1.

AND

&&

Logical AND. Evaluates to 1 if all operands are non-zero and not NULL, to 0 if one or more operands are 0, otherwise NULL is returned.

mysql> SELECT 1 && 1;
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT 1 && 0;
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT 1 && NULL;
        -> NULL
mysql> SELECT 0 && NULL;
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT NULL && 0;
        -> 0

Please note that MySQL versions prior to 4.0.5 stop evaluation when a NULL is encountered, rather than continuing the process to check for possible 0 values. This means that in these versions, SELECT (NULL AND 0) returns NULL instead of 0. As of MySQL 4.0.5, the code has been re-engineered so that the result is always as prescribed by the SQL standards while still using the optimization wherever possible.

OR

||

Logical OR. Evaluates to 1 if any operand is non-zero, to NULL if any operand is NULL, otherwise 0 is returned.

mysql> SELECT 1 || 1;
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT 1 || 0;
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT 0 || 0;
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT 0 || NULL;
        -> NULL
mysql> SELECT 1 || NULL;
        -> 1

XOR

Logical XOR. Returns NULL if either operand is NULL. For non-NULL operands, evaluates to 1 if an odd number of operands is non-zero, otherwise 0 is returned.

mysql> SELECT 1 XOR 1;
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT 1 XOR 0;
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT 1 XOR NULL;
        -> NULL
mysql> SELECT 1 XOR 1 XOR 1;
        -> 1

a XOR b is mathematically equal to (a AND (NOT b)) OR ((NOT a) and b). XOR was added in MySQL 4.0.2.

13.1.4 Case-sensitivity Operators

BINARY

The BINARY operator casts the string following it to a binary string. This is an easy way to force a column comparison to be case sensitive even if the column isn't defined as BINARY or BLOB.

mysql> SELECT 'a' = 'A';
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT BINARY 'a' = 'A';
        -> 0

BINARY str is a shorthand for CAST(str AS BINARY). See section 13.7 Cast Functions. BINARY was introduced in MySQL 3.23.0. Note that in some contexts, if you cast an indexed column to BINARY, MySQL will not be able to use the index efficiently.

If you want to compare a BLOB value in case-insensitive fashion, you can do so as follows:

Before MySQL 4.1.1, use the UPPER() function to convert the BLOB value to uppercase before performing the comparison:
```
SELECT 'A' LIKE UPPER(blob_col) FROM tbl_name;
```
If the comparison value is lowercase, convert the BLOB value using LOWER() instead.
For MySQL 4.1.1 and up, BLOB columns have a character set of binary, which has no concept of lettercase. To perform a case-insensitive comparison, use the CONVERT() function to convert the BLOB value to a character set that is not case sensitive. The result is a non-binary string, so the LIKE operation is not case sensitive:
```
SELECT 'A' LIKE CONVERT(blob_col USING latin1) FROM tbl_name;
```
To use a different character set, substitute its name for latin1 in the preceding statement.

CONVERT() can be used more generally for comparing strings that are represented in different character sets.

13.2 Control Flow Functions

CASE value WHEN [compare-value] THEN result [WHEN [compare-value] THEN result ...] [ELSE result] END

CASE WHEN [condition] THEN result [WHEN [condition] THEN result ...] [ELSE result] END

The first version returns the result where value=compare-value. The second version returns the result for the first condition that is true. If there was no matching result value, the result after ELSE is returned, or NULL if there is no ELSE part.

mysql> SELECT CASE 1 WHEN 1 THEN 'one'
           WHEN 2 THEN 'two' ELSE 'more' END;
        -> 'one'
mysql> SELECT CASE WHEN 1>0 THEN 'true' ELSE 'false' END;
        -> 'true'
mysql> SELECT CASE BINARY 'B'
           WHEN 'a' THEN 1 WHEN 'b' THEN 2 END;
        -> NULL

The type of the return value (INTEGER, DOUBLE or STRING) is the same as the type of the first returned value (the expression after the first THEN).

IF(expr1,expr2,expr3)

If expr1 is TRUE (expr1 <> 0 and expr1 <> NULL) then IF() returns expr2, else it returns expr3. IF() returns a numeric or string value, depending on the context in which it is used.

mysql> SELECT IF(1>2,2,3);
        -> 3
mysql> SELECT IF(1<2,'yes','no');
        -> 'yes'
mysql> SELECT IF(STRCMP('test','test1'),'no','yes');
        -> 'no'

If only one of expr2 or expr3 is explicitly NULL, the result type of the IF() function is the type of non-NULL expression. (This behavior is new in MySQL 4.0.3). expr1 is evaluated as an integer value, which means that if you are testing floating-point or string values, you should do so using a comparison operation.

mysql> SELECT IF(0.1,1,0);
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT IF(0.1<>0,1,0);
        -> 1

In the first case shown, IF(0.1) returns 0 because 0.1 is converted to an integer value, resulting in a test of IF(0). This may not be what you expect. In the second case, the comparison tests the original floating-point value to see whether it is non-zero. The result of the comparison is used as an integer. The default return type of IF() (which may matter when it is stored into a temporary table) is calculated in MySQL 3.23 as follows:

Expression	Return Value
`expr2` or `expr3` returns string	string
`expr2` or `expr3` returns a floating-point value	floating-point
`expr2` or `expr3` returns an integer	integer

If expr2 and expr3 are strings, the result is case sensitive if either string is case sensitive (starting from MySQL 3.23.51).

IFNULL(expr1,expr2)

If expr1 is not NULL, IFNULL() returns expr1, else it returns expr2. IFNULL() returns a numeric or string value, depending on the context in which it is used.

mysql> SELECT IFNULL(1,0);
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT IFNULL(NULL,10);
        -> 10
mysql> SELECT IFNULL(1/0,10);
        -> 10
mysql> SELECT IFNULL(1/0,'yes');
        -> 'yes'

In MySQL 4.0.6 and above, the default result value of IFNULL(expr1,expr2) is the more ``general'' of the two expressions, in the order STRING, REAL, or INTEGER. The difference from earlier MySQL versions is mostly notable when you create a table based on expressions or MySQL has to internally store a value from IFNULL() in a temporary table.

CREATE TABLE tmp SELECT IFNULL(1,'test') AS test;

As of MySQL 4.0.6, the type for the test column is CHAR(4), whereas in earlier versions the type would be BIGINT.

NULLIF(expr1,expr2)

Returns NULL if expr1 = expr2 is true, else returns expr1. This is the same as CASE WHEN x = y THEN NULL ELSE x END.

mysql> SELECT NULLIF(1,1);
        -> NULL
mysql> SELECT NULLIF(1,2);
        -> 1

Note that MySQL evaluates expr1 twice if the arguments are not equal.

13.3 String Functions

String-valued functions return NULL if the length of the result would be greater than the value of the max_allowed_packet system variable. See section 7.5.2 Tuning Server Parameters.

For functions that operate on string positions, the first position is numbered 1.

ASCII(str)

Returns the numeric value of the leftmost character of the string str. Returns 0 if str is the empty string. Returns NULL if str is NULL. ASCII() works for characters with numeric values from 0 to 255.

mysql> SELECT ASCII('2');
        -> 50
mysql> SELECT ASCII(2);
        -> 50
mysql> SELECT ASCII('dx');
        -> 100

13.3.1 String Comparison Functions

MySQL automatically converts numbers to strings as necessary, and vice-versa.

mysql> SELECT 1+'1';
        -> 2
mysql> SELECT CONCAT(2,' test');
        -> '2 test'

If you want to convert a number to a string explicitly, use the CAST() or CONCAT() function:

mysql> SELECT 38.8, CAST(38.8 AS CHAR);
        -> 38.8, '38.8'
mysql> SELECT 38.8, CONCAT(38.8);
        -> 38.8, '38.8'

CAST() is preferable, but it is unavailable before MySQL 4.0.2.

If a string function is given a binary string as an argument, the resulting string is also a binary string. A number converted to a string is treated as a binary string. This only affects comparisons.

Normally, if any expression in a string comparison is case sensitive, the comparison is performed in case-sensitive fashion.

expr LIKE pat [ESCAPE 'escape-char']

Pattern matching using SQL simple regular expression comparison. Returns 1 (TRUE) or 0 (FALSE). If either expr or pat is NULL, the result is NULL. With LIKE you can use the following two wildcard characters in the pattern:

Character	Description
`%`	Matches any number of characters, even zero characters
`_`	Matches exactly one character

mysql> SELECT 'David!' LIKE 'David_';
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT 'David!' LIKE '%D%v%';
        -> 1

To test for literal instances of a wildcard character, precede the character with the escape character. If you don't specify the ESCAPE character, `\' is assumed.

String	Description
`\%`	Matches one `%' character
`\_`	Matches one `_' character

mysql> SELECT 'David!' LIKE 'David\_';
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT 'David_' LIKE 'David\_';
        -> 1

To specify a different escape character, use the ESCAPE clause:

mysql> SELECT 'David_' LIKE 'David|_' ESCAPE '|';
        -> 1

The following two statements illustrate that string comparisons are not case sensitive unless one of the operands is a binary string:

mysql> SELECT 'abc' LIKE 'ABC';
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT 'abc' LIKE BINARY 'ABC';
        -> 0

In MySQL, LIKE is allowed on numeric expressions. (This is an extension to the standard SQL LIKE.)

mysql> SELECT 10 LIKE '1%';
        -> 1

Note: Because MySQL uses the C escape syntax in strings (for example, `\n' to represent newline), you must double any `\' that you use in your LIKE strings. For example, to search for `\n', specify it as `\\n'. To search for `\', specify it as `\\\\' (the backslashes are stripped once by the parser and another time when the pattern match is done, leaving a single backslash to be matched). Note: Currently LIKE is not multi-byte character safe. Comparison is done character by character.

expr NOT LIKE pat [ESCAPE 'escape-char']

This is the same as NOT (expr LIKE pat [ESCAPE 'escape-char']).

expr NOT REGEXP pat

expr NOT RLIKE pat

This is the same as NOT (expr REGEXP pat).

expr REGEXP pat

expr RLIKE pat

Performs a pattern match of a string expression expr against a pattern pat. The pattern can be an extended regular expression. The syntax for regular expressions is discussed in section F MySQL Regular Expressions. Returns 1 if expr matches pat, otherwise returns 0. If either expr or pat is NULL, the result is NULL. RLIKE is a synonym for REGEXP, provided for mSQL compatibility. Note: Because MySQL uses the C escape syntax in strings (for example, `\n' to represent newline), you must double any `\' that you use in your REGEXP strings. As of MySQL 3.23.4, REGEXP is not case sensitive for normal (not binary) strings.

mysql> SELECT 'Monty!' REGEXP 'm%y%%';
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT 'Monty!' REGEXP '.*';
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT 'new*\n*line' REGEXP 'new\\*.\\*line';
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT 'a' REGEXP 'A', 'a' REGEXP BINARY 'A';
        -> 1  0
mysql> SELECT 'a' REGEXP '^[a-d]';
        -> 1

REGEXP and RLIKE use the current character set (ISO-8859-1 Latin1 by default) when deciding the type of a character.

STRCMP(expr1,expr2)

STRCMP() returns 0 if the strings are the same, -1 if the first argument is smaller than the second according to the current sort order, and 1 otherwise.

mysql> SELECT STRCMP('text', 'text2');
        -> -1
mysql> SELECT STRCMP('text2', 'text');
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT STRCMP('text', 'text');
        -> 0

As of MySQL 4.0, STRCMP() uses the current character set when performing comparisons. This makes the default comparison behavior case insensitive unless one or both of the operands are binary strings. Before MySQL 4.0, STRCMP() is case sensitive.

13.4 Numeric Functions

13.4.1 Arithmetic Operators

The usual arithmetic operators are available. Note that in the case of `-', `+', and `*', the result is calculated with BIGINT (64-bit) precision if both arguments are integers. If one of the argument is an unsigned integer, and the other argument is also an integer, the result will be an unsigned integer. See section 13.7 Cast Functions.

+

Addition:

mysql> SELECT 3+5;
        -> 8

-

Subtraction:

mysql> SELECT 3-5;
        -> -2

-

Unary minus. Changes the sign of the argument.

mysql> SELECT - 2;
        -> -2

Note that if this operator is used with a BIGINT, the return value is a BIGINT! This means that you should avoid using - on integers that may have the value of -2^63!

*

Multiplication:

mysql> SELECT 3*5;
        -> 15
mysql> SELECT 18014398509481984*18014398509481984.0;
        -> 324518553658426726783156020576256.0
mysql> SELECT 18014398509481984*18014398509481984;
        -> 0

The result of the last expression is incorrect because the result of the integer multiplication exceeds the 64-bit range of BIGINT calculations.

/

Division:

mysql> SELECT 3/5;
        -> 0.60

Division by zero produces a NULL result:

mysql> SELECT 102/(1-1);
        -> NULL

A division will be calculated with BIGINT arithmetic only if performed in a context where its result is converted to an integer!

13.4.2 Mathematical Functions

All mathematical functions return NULL in case of an error.

ABS(X)

Returns the absolute value of X.

mysql> SELECT ABS(2);
        -> 2
mysql> SELECT ABS(-32);
        -> 32

This function is safe to use with BIGINT values.

ACOS(X)

Returns the arc cosine of X, that is, the value whose cosine is X. Returns NULL if X is not in the range -1 to 1.

mysql> SELECT ACOS(1);
        -> 0.000000
mysql> SELECT ACOS(1.0001);
        -> NULL
mysql> SELECT ACOS(0);
        -> 1.570796

ASIN(X)

Returns the arc sine of X, that is, the value whose sine is X. Returns NULL if X is not in the range -1 to 1.

mysql> SELECT ASIN(0.2);
        -> 0.201358
mysql> SELECT ASIN('foo');
        -> 0.000000

ATAN(X)

Returns the arc tangent of X, that is, the value whose tangent is X.

mysql> SELECT ATAN(2);
        -> 1.107149
mysql> SELECT ATAN(-2);
        -> -1.107149

ATAN(Y,X)

ATAN2(Y,X)

Returns the arc tangent of the two variables X and Y. It is similar to calculating the arc tangent of Y / X, except that the signs of both arguments are used to determine the quadrant of the result.

mysql> SELECT ATAN(-2,2);
        -> -0.785398
mysql> SELECT ATAN2(PI(),0);
        -> 1.570796

CEILING(X)

CEIL(X)

Returns the smallest integer value not less than X.

mysql> SELECT CEILING(1.23);
        -> 2
mysql> SELECT CEIL(-1.23);
        -> -1

The CEIL() alias was added in MySQL 4.0.6. Note that the return value is converted to a BIGINT!

COS(X)

Returns the cosine of X, where X is given in radians.

mysql> SELECT COS(PI());
        -> -1.000000

COT(X)

Returns the cotangent of X.

mysql> SELECT COT(12);
        -> -1.57267341
mysql> SELECT COT(0);
        -> NULL

CRC32(expr)

Computes a cyclic redundancy check value and returns a 32-bit unsigned value. The result is NULL if the argument is NULL. The argument is expected be a string and will be treated as one if it is not.

mysql> SELECT CRC32('MySQL');
        -> 3259397556

CRC32() is available as of MySQL 4.1.0.

DEGREES(X)

Returns the argument X, converted from radians to degrees.

mysql> SELECT DEGREES(PI());
        -> 180.000000

DIV

Integer division. Similar to FLOOR() but safe with BIGINT values.

mysql> SELECT 5 DIV 2
        -> 2

DIV is new in MySQL 4.1.0.

EXP(X)

Returns the value of e (the base of natural logarithms) raised to the power of X.

mysql> SELECT EXP(2);
        -> 7.389056
mysql> SELECT EXP(-2);
        -> 0.135335

FLOOR(X)

Returns the largest integer value not greater than X.

mysql> SELECT FLOOR(1.23);
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT FLOOR(-1.23);
        -> -2

Note that the return value is converted to a BIGINT!

LN(X)

Returns the natural logarithm of X.

mysql> SELECT LN(2);
        -> 0.693147
mysql> SELECT LN(-2);
        -> NULL

This function was added in MySQL 4.0.3. It is synonymous with LOG(X) in MySQL.

LOG(X)

LOG(B,X)

If called with one parameter, this function returns the natural logarithm of X.

mysql> SELECT LOG(2);
        -> 0.693147
mysql> SELECT LOG(-2);
        -> NULL

If called with two parameters, this function returns the logarithm of X for an arbitrary base B.

mysql> SELECT LOG(2,65536);
        -> 16.000000
mysql> SELECT LOG(1,100);
        -> NULL

The arbitrary base option was added in MySQL 4.0.3. LOG(B,X) is equivalent to LOG(X)/LOG(B).

LOG2(X)

Returns the base-2 logarithm of X.

mysql> SELECT LOG2(65536);
        -> 16.000000
mysql> SELECT LOG2(-100);
        -> NULL

LOG2() is useful for finding out how many bits a number would require for storage. This function was added in MySQL 4.0.3. In earlier versions, you can use LOG(X)/LOG(2) instead.

LOG10(X)

Returns the base-10 logarithm of X.

mysql> SELECT LOG10(2);
        -> 0.301030
mysql> SELECT LOG10(100);
        -> 2.000000
mysql> SELECT LOG10(-100);
        -> NULL

MOD(N,M)

N % M

N MOD M

Modulo (like the % operator in C). Returns the remainder of N divided by M.

mysql> SELECT MOD(234, 10);
        -> 4
mysql> SELECT 253 % 7;
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT MOD(29,9);
        -> 2
mysql> SELECT 29 MOD 9;
        -> 2

This function is safe to use with BIGINT values. The N MOD M syntax works only as of MySQL 4.1

PI()

Returns the value of PI. The default number of decimals displayed is five, but MySQL internally uses the full double precession for PI.

mysql> SELECT PI();
        -> 3.141593
mysql> SELECT PI()+0.000000000000000000;
        -> 3.141592653589793116

POW(X,Y)

POWER(X,Y)

Returns the value of X raised to the power of Y.

mysql> SELECT POW(2,2);
        -> 4.000000
mysql> SELECT POW(2,-2);
        -> 0.250000

RADIANS(X)

Returns the argument X, converted from degrees to radians.

mysql> SELECT RADIANS(90);
        -> 1.570796

RAND()

RAND(N)

Returns a random floating-point value in the range from 0 to 1.0. If an integer argument N is specified, it is used as the seed value (producing a repeatable sequence).

mysql> SELECT RAND();
        -> 0.9233482386203
mysql> SELECT RAND(20);
        -> 0.15888261251047
mysql> SELECT RAND(20);
        -> 0.15888261251047
mysql> SELECT RAND();
        -> 0.63553050033332
mysql> SELECT RAND();
        -> 0.70100469486881

You can't use a column with RAND() values in an ORDER BY clause, because ORDER BY would evaluate the column multiple times. As of MySQL 3.23, you can retrieve rows in random order like this:

mysql> SELECT * FROM tbl_name ORDER BY RAND();

ORDER BY RAND() combined with LIMIT is useful for selecting a random sample of a set of rows::

mysql> SELECT * FROM table1, table2 WHERE a=b AND c<d
    -> ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1000;

Note that RAND() in a WHERE clause is re-evaluated every time the WHERE is executed. RAND() is not meant to be a perfect random generator, but instead a fast way to generate ad hoc random numbers that will be portable between platforms for the same MySQL version.

ROUND(X)

ROUND(X,D)

Returns the argument X, rounded to the nearest integer. With two arguments, returns X rounded to D decimals.

mysql> SELECT ROUND(-1.23);
        -> -1
mysql> SELECT ROUND(-1.58);
        -> -2
mysql> SELECT ROUND(1.58);
        -> 2
mysql> SELECT ROUND(1.298, 1);
        -> 1.3
mysql> SELECT ROUND(1.298, 0);
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT ROUND(23.298, -1);
        -> 20

Note that the behavior of ROUND() when the argument is halfway between two integers depends on the C library implementation. Different implementations round to the nearest even number, always up, always down, or always toward zero. If you need one kind of rounding, you should use a well-defined function such as TRUNCATE() or FLOOR() instead.

SIGN(X)

Returns the sign of the argument as -1, 0, or 1, depending on whether X is negative, zero, or positive.

mysql> SELECT SIGN(-32);
        -> -1
mysql> SELECT SIGN(0);
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT SIGN(234);
        -> 1

SIN(X)

Returns the sine of X, where X is given in radians.

mysql> SELECT SIN(PI());
        -> 0.000000

SQRT(X)

Returns the non-negative square root of X.

mysql> SELECT SQRT(4);
        -> 2.000000
mysql> SELECT SQRT(20);
        -> 4.472136

TAN(X)

Returns the tangent of X, where X is given in radians.

mysql> SELECT TAN(PI()+1);
        -> 1.557408

TRUNCATE(X,D)

Returns the number X, truncated to D decimals. If D is 0, the result will have no decimal point or fractional part.

mysql> SELECT TRUNCATE(1.223,1);
        -> 1.2
mysql> SELECT TRUNCATE(1.999,1);
        -> 1.9
mysql> SELECT TRUNCATE(1.999,0);
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT TRUNCATE(-1.999,1);
        -> -1.9

Starting from MySQL 3.23.51, all numbers are rounded toward zero. If D is negative, the whole part of the number is zeroed out:

mysql> SELECT TRUNCATE(122,-2);
       -> 100

Note that decimal numbers are normally not stored as exact numbers in computers, but as double-precision values, so you may be surprised by the following result:

mysql> SELECT TRUNCATE(10.28*100,0);
       -> 1027

This happens because 10.28 is actually stored as something like 10.2799999999999999.

13.5 Date and Time Functions

This section describes the functions that can be used to manipulate temporal values. See section 12.5 Date and Time Types for a description of the range of values each date and time type has and the valid formats in which values may be specified.

Here is an example that uses date functions. The following query selects all records with a date_col value from within the last 30 days:

mysql> SELECT something FROM tbl_name
    -> WHERE DATE_SUB(CURDATE(),INTERVAL 30 DAY) <= date_col;

Note that the query also will select records with dates that lie in the future.

Functions that expect date values usually will accept datetime values and ignore the time part. Functions that expect time values usually will accept datetime values and ignore the date part.

Functions that return the current date or time each are evaluated only once per query at the start of query execution. This means that multiple references to a function such as NOW() within a single query will always produce the same result. This principle also applies to CURDATE(), CURTIME(), UTC_DATE(), UTC_TIME(), UTC_TIMESTAMP(), and any of their synonyms.

The return value ranges in the following function descriptions apply for complete dates. If a date is a ``zero'' value or an incomplete date such as '2001-11-00', functions that extract a part of a date may return 0. For example, DAYOFMONTH('2001-11-00') returns 0.

ADDDATE(date,INTERVAL expr type)

ADDDATE(expr,days)

When invoked with the INTERVAL form of the second argument, ADDDATE() is a synonym for DATE_ADD(). The related function SUBDATE() is a synonym for DATE_SUB().

mysql> SELECT DATE_ADD('1998-01-02', INTERVAL 31 DAY);
        -> '1998-02-02'
mysql> SELECT ADDDATE('1998-01-02', INTERVAL 31 DAY);
        -> '1998-02-02'

As of MySQL 4.1.1, the second syntax is allowed, where expr is a date or datetime expression and days is the number of days to be added to expr.

mysql> SELECT ADDDATE('1998-01-02', 31);
        -> '1998-02-02'

ADDTIME(expr,expr2)

ADDTIME() adds expr2 to expr and returns the result. expr is a date or datetime expression, and expr2 is a time expression.

mysql> SELECT ADDTIME('1997-12-31 23:59:59.999999',
    ->                '1 1:1:1.000002');
        -> '1998-01-02 01:01:01.000001'
mysql> SELECT ADDTIME('01:00:00.999999', '02:00:00.999998');
        -> '03:00:01.999997'

ADDTIME() was added in MySQL 4.1.1.

CURDATE()

Returns the current date as a value in 'YYYY-MM-DD' or YYYYMMDD format, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context.

mysql> SELECT CURDATE();
        -> '1997-12-15'
mysql> SELECT CURDATE() + 0;
        -> 19971215

CURRENT_DATE

CURRENT_DATE()

CURRENT_DATE and CURRENT_DATE() are synonyms for CURDATE().

CURTIME()

Returns the current time as a value in 'HH:MM:SS' or HHMMSS format, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context.

mysql> SELECT CURTIME();
        -> '23:50:26'
mysql> SELECT CURTIME() + 0;
        -> 235026

CURRENT_TIME

CURRENT_TIME()

CURRENT_TIME and CURRENT_TIME() are synonyms for CURTIME().

CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

CURRENT_TIMESTAMP()

CURRENT_TIMESTAMP and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP() are synonyms for NOW().

DATE(expr)

Extracts the date part of the date or datetime expression expr.

mysql> SELECT DATE('2003-12-31 01:02:03');
        -> '2003-12-31'

DATE() is available as of MySQL 4.1.1.

DATEDIFF(expr,expr2)

DATEDIFF() returns the number of days between the start date expr and the end date expr2. expr and expr2 are date or date-and-time expressions. Only the date parts of the values are used in the calculation.

mysql> SELECT DATEDIFF('1997-12-31 23:59:59','1997-12-30');
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT DATEDIFF('1997-11-30 23:59:59','1997-12-31');
        -> -31

DATEDIFF() was added in MySQL 4.1.1.

DATE_ADD(date,INTERVAL expr type)

DATE_SUB(date,INTERVAL expr type)

These functions perform date arithmetic. date is a DATETIME or DATE value specifying the starting date. expr is an expression specifying the interval value to be added or subtracted from the starting date. expr is a string; it may start with a `-' for negative intervals. type is a keyword indicating how the expression should be interpreted. The INTERVAL keyword and the type specifier are not case sensitive. The following table shows how the type and expr arguments are related:

`type` Value	Expected `expr` Format
`MICROSECOND`	`MICROSECONDS`
`SECOND`	`SECONDS`
`MINUTE`	`MINUTES`
`HOUR`	`HOURS`
`DAY`	`DAYS`
`WEEK`	`WEEKS`
`MONTH`	`MONTHS`
`QUARTER`	`QUARTERS`
`YEAR`	`YEARS`
`SECOND_MICROSECOND`	`'SECONDS.MICROSECONDS'`
`MINUTE_MICROSECOND`	`'MINUTES.MICROSECONDS'`
`MINUTE_SECOND`	`'MINUTES:SECONDS'`
`HOUR_MICROSECOND`	`'HOURS.MICROSECONDS'`
`HOUR_SECOND`	`'HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS'`
`HOUR_MINUTE`	`'HOURS:MINUTES'`
`DAY_MICROSECOND`	`'DAYS.MICROSECONDS'`
`DAY_SECOND`	`'DAYS HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS'`
`DAY_MINUTE`	`'DAYS HOURS:MINUTES'`
`DAY_HOUR`	`'DAYS HOURS'`
`YEAR_MONTH`	`'YEARS-MONTHS'`

The type values DAY_MICROSECOND, HOUR_MICROSECOND, MINUTE_MICROSECOND, SECOND_MICROSECOND, and MICROSECOND are allowed as of MySQL 4.1.1. The values QUARTER and WEEK are allowed as of MySQL 5.0.0. MySQL allows any punctuation delimiter in the expr format. Those shown in the table are the suggested delimiters. If the date argument is a DATE value and your calculations involve only YEAR, MONTH, and DAY parts (that is, no time parts), the result is a DATE value. Otherwise, the result is a DATETIME value. As of MySQL 3.23, INTERVAL expr type is allowed on either side of the + operator if the expression on the other side is a date or datetime value. For the - operator, INTERVAL expr type is allowed only on the right side, because it makes no sense to subtract a date or datetime value from an interval. (See examples below.)

mysql> SELECT '1997-12-31 23:59:59' + INTERVAL 1 SECOND;
        -> '1998-01-01 00:00:00'
mysql> SELECT INTERVAL 1 DAY + '1997-12-31';
        -> '1998-01-01'
mysql> SELECT '1998-01-01' - INTERVAL 1 SECOND;
        -> '1997-12-31 23:59:59'
mysql> SELECT DATE_ADD('1997-12-31 23:59:59',
    ->                 INTERVAL 1 SECOND);
        -> '1998-01-01 00:00:00'
mysql> SELECT DATE_ADD('1997-12-31 23:59:59',
    ->                 INTERVAL 1 DAY);
        -> '1998-01-01 23:59:59'
mysql> SELECT DATE_ADD('1997-12-31 23:59:59',
    ->                 INTERVAL '1:1' MINUTE_SECOND);
        -> '1998-01-01 00:01:00'
mysql> SELECT DATE_SUB('1998-01-01 00:00:00',
    ->                 INTERVAL '1 1:1:1' DAY_SECOND);
        -> '1997-12-30 22:58:59'
mysql> SELECT DATE_ADD('1998-01-01 00:00:00',
    ->                 INTERVAL '-1 10' DAY_HOUR);
        -> '1997-12-30 14:00:00'
mysql> SELECT DATE_SUB('1998-01-02', INTERVAL 31 DAY);
        -> '1997-12-02'
mysql> SELECT DATE_ADD('1992-12-31 23:59:59.000002',
    ->            INTERVAL '1.999999' SECOND_MICROSECOND);
        -> '1993-01-01 00:00:01.000001'

If you specify an interval value that is too short (does not include all the interval parts that would be expected from the type keyword), MySQL assumes you have left out the leftmost parts of the interval value. For example, if you specify a type of DAY_SECOND, the value of expr is expected to have days, hours, minutes, and seconds parts. If you specify a value like '1:10', MySQL assumes that the days and hours parts are missing and the value represents minutes and seconds. In other words, '1:10' DAY_SECOND is interpreted in such a way that it is equivalent to '1:10' MINUTE_SECOND. This is analogous to the way that MySQL interprets TIME values as representing elapsed time rather than as time of day. If you add to or subtract from a date value something that contains a time part, the result is automatically converted to a datetime value:

mysql> SELECT DATE_ADD('1999-01-01', INTERVAL 1 DAY);
        -> '1999-01-02'
mysql> SELECT DATE_ADD('1999-01-01', INTERVAL 1 HOUR);
        -> '1999-01-01 01:00:00'

If you use really malformed dates, the result is NULL. If you add MONTH, YEAR_MONTH, or YEAR and the resulting date has a day that is larger than the maximum day for the new month, the day is adjusted to the maximum days in the new month:

mysql> SELECT DATE_ADD('1998-01-30', INTERVAL 1 MONTH);
        -> '1998-02-28'

DATE_FORMAT(date,format)

Formats the date value according to the format string. The following specifiers may be used in the format string:

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
`%u`	Week (`00`..`53`), where Monday is the first day of the week
`%V`	Week (`01`..`53`), where Sunday is the first day of the week; used with `%X`
`%v`	Week (`01`..`53`), where Monday is the first day of the week; 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, 4 digits; used with `%V`
`%x`	Year for the week, where Monday is the first day of the week, numeric, 4 digits; used with `%v`
`%Y`	Year, numeric, 4 digits
`%y`	Year, numeric, 2 digits
`%%`	A literal `%'.

All other characters are copied to the result without interpretation. The %v, %V, %x, and %X format specifiers are available as of MySQL 3.23.8. %f is available as of MySQL 4.1.1. As of MySQL 3.23, the `%' character is required before format specifier characters. In earlier versions of MySQL, `%' was optional. The reason the ranges for the month and day specifiers begin with zero is that MySQL allows incomplete dates such as '2004-00-00' to be stored as of MySQL 3.23.

mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('1997-10-04 22:23:00', '%W %M %Y');
        -> 'Saturday October 1997'
mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('1997-10-04 22:23:00', '%H:%i:%s');
        -> '22:23:00'
mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('1997-10-04 22:23:00',
                          '%D %y %a %d %m %b %j');
        -> '4th 97 Sat 04 10 Oct 277'
mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('1997-10-04 22:23:00',
                          '%H %k %I %r %T %S %w');
        -> '22 22 10 10:23:00 PM 22:23:00 00 6'
mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('1999-01-01', '%X %V');
        -> '1998 52'

DAY(date)

DAY() is a synonym for DAYOFMONTH(). It is available as of MySQL 4.1.1.

DAYNAME(date)

Returns the name of the weekday for date.

mysql> SELECT DAYNAME('1998-02-05');
        -> 'Thursday'

DAYOFMONTH(date)

Returns the day of the month for date, in the range 1 to 31.

mysql> SELECT DAYOFMONTH('1998-02-03');
        -> 3

DAYOFWEEK(date)

Returns the weekday index for date (1 = Sunday, 2 = Monday, ... 7 = Saturday). These index values correspond to the ODBC standard.

mysql> SELECT DAYOFWEEK('1998-02-03');
        -> 3

DAYOFYEAR(date)

Returns the day of the year for date, in the range 1 to 366.

mysql> SELECT DAYOFYEAR('1998-02-03');
        -> 34

EXTRACT(type FROM date)

The EXTRACT() function uses the same kinds of interval type specifiers as DATE_ADD() or DATE_SUB(), but extracts parts from the date rather than performing date arithmetic.

mysql> SELECT EXTRACT(YEAR FROM '1999-07-02');
       -> 1999
mysql> SELECT EXTRACT(YEAR_MONTH FROM '1999-07-02 01:02:03');
       -> 199907
mysql> SELECT EXTRACT(DAY_MINUTE FROM '1999-07-02 01:02:03');
       -> 20102
mysql> SELECT EXTRACT(MICROSECOND
    ->                FROM '2003-01-02 10:30:00.00123');
        -> 123

FROM_DAYS(N)

Given a daynumber N, returns a DATE value.

mysql> SELECT FROM_DAYS(729669);
        -> '1997-10-07'

FROM_DAYS() is not intended for use with values that precede the advent of the Gregorian calendar (1582), because it doesn't take into account the days that were lost when the calendar was changed.

FROM_UNIXTIME(unix_timestamp)

FROM_UNIXTIME(unix_timestamp,format)

Returns a representation of the unix_timestamp argument as a value in 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' or YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context.

mysql> SELECT FROM_UNIXTIME(875996580);
        -> '1997-10-04 22:23:00'
mysql> SELECT FROM_UNIXTIME(875996580) + 0;
        -> 19971004222300

If format is given, the result is formatted according to the format string. format may contain the same specifiers as those listed in the entry for the DATE_FORMAT() function.

mysql> SELECT FROM_UNIXTIME(UNIX_TIMESTAMP(),
    ->                      '%Y %D %M %h:%i:%s %x');
        -> '2003 6th August 06:22:58 2003'

GET_FORMAT(DATE | TIME | TIMESTAMP, 'EUR' | 'USA' | 'JIS' | 'ISO' | 'INTERNAL')

Returns a format string. This function is useful in combination with the DATE_FORMAT() and the STR_TO_DATE() functions. The three possible values for the first argument and the five possible values for the second argument result in 15 possible format strings (for the specifiers used, see the table in the DATE_FORMAT() function description).

Function Call	Result
`GET_FORMAT(DATE,'USA')`	`'%m.%d.%Y'`
`GET_FORMAT(DATE,'JIS')`	`'%Y-%m-%d'`
`GET_FORMAT(DATE,'ISO')`	`'%Y-%m-%d'`
`GET_FORMAT(DATE,'EUR')`	`'%d.%m.%Y'`
`GET_FORMAT(DATE,'INTERNAL')`	`'%Y%m%d'`
`GET_FORMAT(TIMESTAMP,'USA')`	`'%Y-%m-%d-%H.%i.%s'`
`GET_FORMAT(TIMESTAMP,'JIS')`	`'%Y-%m-%d %H:%i:%s'`
`GET_FORMAT(TIMESTAMP,'ISO')`	`'%Y-%m-%d %H:%i:%s'`
`GET_FORMAT(TIMESTAMP,'EUR')`	`'%Y-%m-%d-%H.%i.%s'`
`GET_FORMAT(TIMESTAMP,'INTERNAL')`	`'%Y%m%d%H%i%s'`
`GET_FORMAT(TIME,'USA')`	`'%h:%i:%s %p'`
`GET_FORMAT(TIME,'JIS')`	`'%H:%i:%s'`
`GET_FORMAT(TIME,'ISO')`	`'%H:%i:%s'`
`GET_FORMAT(TIME,'EUR')`	`'%H.%i.%S'`
`GET_FORMAT(TIME,'INTERNAL')`	`'%H%i%s'`

ISO format is ISO 9075, not ISO 8601.

mysql> SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2003-10-03',
    ->                    GET_FORMAT(DATE, 'EUR')
        -> '03.10.2003'
mysql> SELECT STR_TO_DATE('10.31.2003',
    ->                    GET_FORMAT(DATE, 'USA'))
        -> 2003-10-31

GET_FORMAT() is available as of MySQL 4.1.1. See See section 14.5.3.1 SET Syntax.

HOUR(time)

Returns the hour for time. The range of the return value will be 0 to 23 for time-of-day values.

mysql> SELECT HOUR('10:05:03');
        -> 10

However, the range of TIME values actually is much larger, so HOUR can return values greater than 23.


mysql> SELECT HOUR('272:59:59');
        -> 272

LAST_DAY(date)

Takes a date or datetime value and returns the corresponding value for the last day of the month. Returns NULL if the argument is invalid.

mysql> SELECT LAST_DAY('2003-02-05');
        -> '2003-02-28'
mysql> SELECT LAST_DAY('2004-02-05');
        -> '2004-02-29'
mysql> SELECT LAST_DAY('2004-01-01 01:01:01');
        -> '2004-01-31'
mysql> SELECT LAST_DAY('2003-03-32');
        -> NULL

LAST_DAY() is available as of MySQL 4.1.1.

LOCALTIME

LOCALTIME()

LOCALTIME and LOCALTIME() are synonyms for NOW().

LOCALTIMESTAMP

LOCALTIMESTAMP()

LOCALTIMESTAMP and LOCALTIMESTAMP() are synonyms for NOW().

MAKEDATE(year,dayofyear)

Returns a date, given year and day-of-year values. dayofyear must be greater than 0 or the result will NULL.

mysql> SELECT MAKEDATE(2001,31), MAKEDATE(2001,32);
        -> '2001-01-31', '2001-02-01'
mysql> SELECT MAKEDATE(2001,365), MAKEDATE(2004,365);
        -> '2001-12-31', '2004-12-30'
mysql> SELECT MAKEDATE(2001,0);
        -> NULL

MAKEDATE() is available as of MySQL 4.1.1.

MAKETIME(hour,minute,second)

Returns a time value calculated from the hour, minute, and second arguments.

mysql> SELECT MAKETIME(12,15,30);
        -> '12:15:30'

MAKETIME() is available as of MySQL 4.1.1.

MICROSECOND(expr)

Returns the microseconds from the time or datetime expression expr as a number in the range from 0 to 999999.

mysql> SELECT MICROSECOND('12:00:00.123456');
        -> 123456
mysql> SELECT MICROSECOND('1997-12-31 23:59:59.000010');
        -> 10

MICROSECOND() is available as of MySQL 4.1.1.

MINUTE(time)

Returns the minute for time, in the range 0 to 59.

mysql> SELECT MINUTE('98-02-03 10:05:03');
        -> 5

MONTH(date)

Returns the month for date, in the range 1 to 12.

mysql> SELECT MONTH('1998-02-03');
        -> 2

MONTHNAME(date)

Returns the full name of the month for date.

mysql> SELECT MONTHNAME('1998-02-05');
        -> 'February'

NOW()

Returns the current date and time as a value in 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' or YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context.

mysql> SELECT NOW();
        -> '1997-12-15 23:50:26'
mysql> SELECT NOW() + 0;
        -> 19971215235026

PERIOD_ADD(P,N)

Adds N months to period P (in the format YYMM or YYYYMM). Returns a value in the format YYYYMM. Note that the period argument P is not a date value.

mysql> SELECT PERIOD_ADD(9801,2);
        -> 199803

PERIOD_DIFF(P1,P2)

Returns the number of months between periods P1 and P2. P1 and P2 should be in the format YYMM or YYYYMM. Note that the period arguments P1 and P2 are not date values.

mysql> SELECT PERIOD_DIFF(9802,199703);
        -> 11

QUARTER(date)

Returns the quarter of the year for date, in the range 1 to 4.

mysql> SELECT QUARTER('98-04-01');
        -> 2

SECOND(time)

Returns the second for time, in the range 0 to 59.

mysql> SELECT SECOND('10:05:03');
        -> 3

SEC_TO_TIME(seconds)

Returns the seconds argument, converted to hours, minutes, and seconds, as a value in 'HH:MM:SS' or HHMMSS format, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context.

mysql> SELECT SEC_TO_TIME(2378);
        -> '00:39:38'
mysql> SELECT SEC_TO_TIME(2378) + 0;
        -> 3938

STR_TO_DATE(str,format)

This is the reverse function of the DATE_FORMAT() function. It takes a string str, and a format string format, and returns a DATETIME value. The date, time, or datetime values contained in str should be given in the format indicated by format. For the specifiers that can be used in format, see the table in the DATE_FORMAT() function description. All other characters are just taken verbatim, thus not being interpreted. If str contains an illegal date, time, or datetime value, STR_TO_DATE() returns NULL.

mysql> SELECT STR_TO_DATE('03.10.2003 09.20',
    ->                    '%d.%m.%Y %H.%i');
        -> '2003-10-03 09:20:00'
mysql> SELECT STR_TO_DATE('10arp', '%carp');
        -> '0000-10-00 00:00:00'
mysql> SELECT STR_TO_DATE('2003-15-10 00:00:00',
    ->                    '%Y-%m-%d %H:%i:%s');
        -> NULL

STR_TO_DATE() is available as of MySQL 4.1.1.

SUBDATE(date,INTERVAL expr type)

SUBDATE(expr,days)

When invoked with the INTERVAL form of the second argument, SUBDATE() is a synonym for DATE_SUB().

mysql> SELECT DATE_SUB('1998-01-02', INTERVAL 31 DAY);
        -> '1997-12-02'
mysql> SELECT SUBDATE('1998-01-02', INTERVAL 31 DAY);
        -> '1997-12-02'

As of MySQL 4.1.1, the second syntax is allowed, where expr is a date or datetime expression and days is the number of days to be subtracted from expr.

mysql> SELECT SUBDATE('1998-01-02 12:00:00', 31);
        -> '1997-12-02 12:00:00'

SUBTIME(expr,expr2)

SUBTIME() subtracts expr2 from expr and returns the result. expr is a date or datetime expression, and expr2 is a time expression.

mysql> SELECT SUBTIME('1997-12-31 23:59:59.999999',
    ->                '1 1:1:1.000002');
        -> '1997-12-30 22:58:58.999997'
mysql> SELECT SUBTIME('01:00:00.999999', '02:00:00.999998');
        -> '-00:59:59.999999'

SUBTIME() was added in MySQL 4.1.1.

SYSDATE()

SYSDATE() is a synonym for NOW().

TIME(expr)

Extracts the time part of the time or datetime expression expr.

mysql> SELECT TIME('2003-12-31 01:02:03');
        -> '01:02:03'
mysql> SELECT TIME('2003-12-31 01:02:03.000123');
        -> '01:02:03.000123'

TIME() is available as of MySQL 4.1.1.

TIMEDIFF(expr,expr2)

TIMEDIFF() returns the time between the start time expr and the end time expr2. expr and expr2 are time or date-and-time expressions, but both must be of the same type.

mysql> SELECT TIMEDIFF('2000:01:01 00:00:00',
    ->                 '2000:01:01 00:00:00.000001');
        -> '-00:00:00.000001'
mysql> SELECT TIMEDIFF('1997-12-31 23:59:59.000001',
    ->                 '1997-12-30 01:01:01.000002');
        -> '46:58:57.999999'

TIMEDIFF() was added in MySQL 4.1.1.

TIMESTAMP(expr)

TIMESTAMP(expr,expr2)

With one argument, returns the date or datetime expression expr as a datetime value. With two arguments, adds the time expression expr2 to the date or datetime expression expr and returns a datetime value.

mysql> SELECT TIMESTAMP('2003-12-31');
        -> '2003-12-31 00:00:00'
mysql> SELECT TIMESTAMP('2003-12-31 12:00:00','12:00:00');
        -> '2004-01-01 00:00:00'

TIMESTAMP() is available as of MySQL 4.1.1.

TIMESTAMPADD(interval,int_expr,datetime_expr)

Adds the integer expression int_expr to the date or datetime expression datetime_expr. The unit for int_expr is given by the interval argument, which should be one of the following values: FRAC_SECOND, SECOND, MINUTE, HOUR, DAY, WEEK, MONTH, QUARTER, or YEAR. The interval value may be specified using one of keywords as shown, or with a prefix of SQL_TSI_. For example, DAY or SQL_TSI_DAY both are legal.

mysql> SELECT TIMESTAMPADD(MINUTE,1,'2003-01-02');
        -> '2003-01-02 00:01:00'
mysql> SELECT TIMESTAMPADD(WEEK,1,'2003-01-02');
        -> '2003-01-09'

TIMESTAMPADD() is available as of MySQL 5.0.0.

TIMESTAMPDIFF(interval,datetime_expr1,datetime_expr2)

Returns the integer difference between the date or datetime expressions datetime_expr1 and datetime_expr2. The unit for the result is given by the interval argument. The legal values for interval are the same as those described in the desription of the TIMESTAMPADD() function.

mysql> SELECT TIMESTAMPDIFF(MONTH,'2003-02-01','2003-05-01');
        -> 3
mysql> SELECT TIMESTAMPDIFF(YEAR,'2002-05-01','2001-01-01');
        -> -1

TIMESTAMPDIFF() is available as of MySQL 5.0.0.

TIME_FORMAT(time,format)

This is used like the DATE_FORMAT() function, but the format string may contain only those format specifiers that handle hours, minutes, and seconds. Other specifiers produce a NULL value or 0. If the time value contains an hour part that is greater than 23, the %H and %k hour format specifiers produce a value larger than the usual range of 0..23. The other hour format specifiers produce the hour value modulo 12.

mysql> SELECT TIME_FORMAT('100:00:00', '%H %k %h %I %l');
        -> '100 100 04 04 4'

TIME_TO_SEC(time)

Returns the time argument, converted to seconds.

mysql> SELECT TIME_TO_SEC('22:23:00');
        -> 80580
mysql> SELECT TIME_TO_SEC('00:39:38');
        -> 2378

TO_DAYS(date)

Given a date date, returns a daynumber (the number of days since year 0).

mysql> SELECT TO_DAYS(950501);
        -> 728779
mysql> SELECT TO_DAYS('1997-10-07');
        -> 729669

TO_DAYS() is not intended for use with values that precede the advent of the Gregorian calendar (1582), because it doesn't take into account the days that were lost when the calendar was changed. Take into account that MySQL converts two-digit year values in dates to four-digit form using the rules in section 12.5 Date and Time Types. For example, '1997-10-07' and '97-10-07' are seen as identical dates:

mysql> SELECT TO_DAYS('1997-10-07'), TO_DAYS('97-10-07');
        -> 729669, 729669

For other dates before 1582, results from this function are undefined.

UNIX_TIMESTAMP()

UNIX_TIMESTAMP(date)

If called with no argument, returns a Unix timestamp (seconds since '1970-01-01 00:00:00' GMT) as an unsigned integer. If UNIX_TIMESTAMP() is called with a date argument, it returns the value of the argument as seconds since

'1970-01-01
00:00:00'

GMT. date may be a DATE string, a DATETIME string, a TIMESTAMP, or a number in the format YYMMDD or YYYYMMDD in local time.

mysql> SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP();
        -> 882226357
mysql> SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP('1997-10-04 22:23:00');
        -> 875996580

When UNIX_TIMESTAMP is used on a TIMESTAMP column, the function returns the internal timestamp value directly, with no implicit ``string-to-Unix-timestamp'' conversion. If you pass an out-of-range date to UNIX_TIMESTAMP(), it returns 0, but please note that only basic range checking is performed (year from 1970 to 2037, month from 01 to 12, day from 01 from 31). If you want to subtract UNIX_TIMESTAMP() columns, you might want to cast the result to signed integers. See section 13.7 Cast Functions.

UTC_DATE

UTC_DATE()

Returns the current UTC date as a value in 'YYYY-MM-DD' or YYYYMMDD format, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context.

mysql> SELECT UTC_DATE(), UTC_DATE() + 0;
        -> '2003-08-14', 20030814

UTC_DATE() is available as of MySQL 4.1.1.

UTC_TIME

UTC_TIME()

Returns the current UTC time as a value in 'HH:MM:SS' or HHMMSS format, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context.

mysql> SELECT UTC_TIME(), UTC_TIME() + 0;
        -> '18:07:53', 180753

UTC_TIME() is available as of MySQL 4.1.1.

UTC_TIMESTAMP

UTC_TIMESTAMP()

Returns the current UTC date and time as a value in 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' or YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context.

mysql> SELECT UTC_TIMESTAMP(), UTC_TIMESTAMP() + 0;
        -> '2003-08-14 18:08:04', 20030814180804

UTC_TIMESTAMP() is available as of MySQL 4.1.1.

WEEK(date [,mode])

The function returns the week number for date. The two-argument form of WEEK() allows you to specify whether the week starts on Sunday or Monday and whether the return value should be in the range from 0 to 53 or from 1 to 52. When the mode argument is omitted, the value of the default_week_format server variable is assumed (or 0 before MySQL 4.0.14). See section 5.2.3 Server System Variables. The following table demonstrates how the mode argument works:

Value	Meaning
`0`	Week starts on Sunday; return value range is `0` to `53`; week 1 is the first week that starts in this year
`1`	Week starts on Monday; return value range is `0` to `53`; week 1 is the first week that has more than 3 days in this year
`2`	Week starts on Sunday; return value range is `1` to `53`; week 1 is the first week that starts in this year
`3`	Week starts on Monday; return value range is `1` to `53`; week 1 is the first week that has more than 3 days in this year
`4`	Week starts on Sunday; return value range is `0` to `53`; week 1 is the first week that has more than 3 days in this year
`5`	Week starts on Monday; return value range is `0` to `53`; week 1 is the first week that starts in this year
`6`	Week starts on Sunday; return value range is `1` to `53`; week 1 is the first week that has more than 3 days in this year
`7`	Week starts on Monday; return value range is `1` to `53`; week 1 is the first week that starts in this year

The mode value of 3 can be used as of MySQL 4.0.5. The mode values of 4 and above can be used as of MySQL 4.0.17.

mysql> SELECT WEEK('1998-02-20');
        -> 7
mysql> SELECT WEEK('1998-02-20',0);
        -> 7
mysql> SELECT WEEK('1998-02-20',1);
        -> 8
mysql> SELECT WEEK('1998-12-31',1);
        -> 53

Note: In MySQL 4.0, WEEK(date,0) was changed to match the calendar in the USA. Before that, WEEK() was calculated incorrectly for dates in USA. (In effect, WEEK(date) and WEEK(date,0) were incorrect for all cases.) Note that if a date falls in the last week of the previous year, MySQL returns 0 if you don't use 2, 3, 6, or 7 as the optional mode argument:

mysql> SELECT YEAR('2000-01-01'), WEEK('2000-01-01',0);
        -> 2000, 0

One might argue that MySQL should return 52 for the WEEK() function, because the given date actually occurs in the 52nd week of 1999. We decided to return 0 instead as we want the function to return ``the week number in the given year.'' This makes the usage of the WEEK() function reliable when combined with other functions that extract a date part from a date. If you would prefer the result to be evaluated with respect to the year that contains the first day of the week for the given date, you should use 2, 3, 6, or 7 as the optional mode argument.

mysql> SELECT WEEK('2000-01-01',2);
        -> 52

Alternatively, use the YEARWEEK() function:

mysql> SELECT YEARWEEK('2000-01-01');
        -> 199952
mysql> SELECT MID(YEARWEEK('2000-01-01'),5,2);
        -> '52'

WEEKDAY(date)

Returns the weekday index for date (0 = Monday, 1 = Tuesday, ... 6 = Sunday).

mysql> SELECT WEEKDAY('1998-02-03 22:23:00');
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT WEEKDAY('1997-11-05');
        -> 2

WEEKOFYEAR(date)

Returns the calendar week of the date as a number in the range from 1 to 53.

mysql> SELECT WEEKOFYEAR('1998-02-20');
        -> 8

WEEKOFYEAR() is available as of MySQL 4.1.1.

YEAR(date)

Returns the year for date, in the range 1000 to 9999.

mysql> SELECT YEAR('98-02-03');
        -> 1998

YEARWEEK(date)

YEARWEEK(date,start)

Returns year and week for a date. The start argument works exactly like the start argument to WEEK(). The year in the result may be different from the year in the date argument for the first and the last week of the year.

mysql> SELECT YEARWEEK('1987-01-01');
        -> 198653

Note that the week number is different from what the WEEK() function would return (0) for optional arguments 0 or 1, as WEEK() then returns the week in the context of the given year.

13.6 Full-text Search Functions

MATCH (col1,col2,...) AGAINST (expr [IN BOOLEAN MODE | WITH QUERY EXPANSION] ): As of MySQL 3.23.23, MySQL has support for full-text indexing and searching. A full-text index in MySQL is an index of type FULLTEXT. FULLTEXT indexes are used with MyISAM tables only and can be created from CHAR, VARCHAR, or TEXT columns at CREATE TABLE time or added later with ALTER TABLE or CREATE INDEX. For large datasets, it will be much faster to load your data into a table that has no FULLTEXT index, then create the index with ALTER TABLE (or CREATE INDEX). Loading data into a table that already has a FULLTEXT index could be significantly slower. Constraints on full-text searching are listed in section 13.6.3 Full-text Restrictions.

Full-text searching is performed with the MATCH() function.

mysql> CREATE TABLE articles (
    ->   id INT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    ->   title VARCHAR(200),
    ->   body TEXT,
    ->   FULLTEXT (title,body)
    -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO articles (title,body) VALUES
    -> ('MySQL Tutorial','DBMS stands for DataBase ...'),
    -> ('How To Use MySQL Well','After you went through a ...'),
    -> ('Optimizing MySQL','In this tutorial we will show ...'),
    -> ('1001 MySQL Tricks','1. Never run mysqld as root. 2. ...'),
    -> ('MySQL vs. YourSQL','In the following database comparison ...'),
    -> ('MySQL Security','When configured properly, MySQL ...');
Query OK, 6 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 6  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> SELECT * FROM articles
    -> WHERE MATCH (title,body) AGAINST ('database');
+----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+
| id | title             | body                                     |
+----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+
|  5 | MySQL vs. YourSQL | In the following database comparison ... |
|  1 | MySQL Tutorial    | DBMS stands for DataBase ...             |
+----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

The MATCH() function performs a natural language search for a string against a text collection. A collection is a set of one or more columns included in a FULLTEXT index. The search string is given as the argument to AGAINST(). The search is performed in case-insensitive fashion. For every row in the table, MATCH() returns a relevance value, that is, a similarity measure between the search string and the text in that row in the columns named in the MATCH() list.

When MATCH() is used in a WHERE clause, as in the preceding example, the rows returned are automatically sorted with the highest relevance first. Relevance values are non-negative floating-point numbers. Zero relevance means no similarity. Relevance is computed based on the number of words in the row, the number of unique words in that row, the total number of words in the collection, and the number of documents (rows) that contain a particular word.

For natural-language full-text searches, it is a requirement that the columns named in the MATCH() function be the same columns included in some FULLTEXT index in your table. For the preceding query, note that the columns named in the MATCH() function (title and body) are the same as those named in the definition of the article table's FULLTEXT index. If you wanted to search the title or body separately, you would need to create FULLTEXT indexes for each column.

It is also possible to perform a boolean search or a search with query expansion. These search types are described in section 13.6.1 Boolean Full-text Searches and section 13.6.2 Full-text Searches with Query Expansion.

The preceding example is a basic illustration showing how to use the MATCH() function where rows are returned in order of decreasing relevance. The next example shows how to retrieve the relevance values explicitly. Returned rows are not ordered because the SELECT statement includes neither WHERE nor ORDER BY clauses:

mysql> SELECT id, MATCH (title,body) AGAINST ('Tutorial')
    -> FROM articles;
+----+-----------------------------------------+
| id | MATCH (title,body) AGAINST ('Tutorial') |
+----+-----------------------------------------+
|  1 |                        0.65545833110809 |
|  2 |                                       0 |
|  3 |                        0.66266459226608 |
|  4 |                                       0 |
|  5 |                                       0 |
|  6 |                                       0 |
+----+-----------------------------------------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)

The following example is more complex. The query returns the relevance values and it also sorts the rows in order of decreasing relevance. To achieve this result, you should specify MATCH() twice, once in the SELECT list and once in the WHERE clause. This causes no additional overhead, because the MySQL optimizer notices that the two MATCH() calls are identical and invokes the full-text search code only once.

mysql> SELECT id, body, MATCH (title,body) AGAINST
    -> ('Security implications of running MySQL as root') AS score
    -> FROM articles WHERE MATCH (title,body) AGAINST
    -> ('Security implications of running MySQL as root');
+----+-------------------------------------+-----------------+
| id | body                                | score           |
+----+-------------------------------------+-----------------+
|  4 | 1. Never run mysqld as root. 2. ... | 1.5219271183014 |
|  6 | When configured properly, MySQL ... | 1.3114095926285 |
+----+-------------------------------------+-----------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

MySQL uses a very simple parser to split text into words. A ``word'' is any sequence of characters consisting of letters, digits, `'', or `_'. Some words are ignored in full-text searches:

Any word that is too short is ignored. The default minimum length of words that will be found by full-text searches is four characters.
Words in the stopword list are ignored. A stopword is a word such as ``the'' or ``some'' that is so common that it is considered to have zero semantic value. There is a built-in stopword list.

The default minimum word length and stopword list can be changed as described in section 13.6.4 Fine-tuning MySQL Full-text Search.

Every correct word in the collection and in the query is weighted according to its significance in the collection or query. This way, a word that is present in many documents has a lower weight (and may even have a zero weight), because it has lower semantic value in this particular collection. Conversely, if the word is rare, it receives a higher weight. The weights of the words are then combined to compute the relevance of the row.

Such a technique works best with large collections (in fact, it was carefully tuned this way). For very small tables, word distribution does not adequately reflect their semantic value, and this model may sometimes produce bizarre results. For example, although the word ``MySQL'' is present in every row of the articles table, a search for the word produces no results:

mysql> SELECT * FROM articles
    -> WHERE MATCH (title,body) AGAINST ('MySQL');
Empty set (0.00 sec)

The search result is empty because the word ``MySQL'' is present in at least 50% of the rows. As such, it is effectively treated as a stopword. For large datasets, this is the most desirable behavior--a natural language query should not return every second row from a 1GB table. For small datasets, it may be less desirable.

A word that matches half of rows in a table is less likely to locate relevant documents. In fact, it will most likely find plenty of irrelevant documents. We all know this happens far too often when we are trying to find something on the Internet with a search engine. It is with this reasoning that rows containing the word are assigned a low semantic value for the particular dataset in which they occur. A given word may exceed the 50% threshold in one dataset but not another.

The 50% threshold has a significant implication when you first try full-text searching to see how it works: If you create a table and insert only one or two rows of text into it, every word in the text occurs in at least 50% of the rows. As a result, no searches return any results. Be sure to insert at least three rows, and preferably many more.

13.6.1 Boolean Full-text Searches

As of Version 4.0.1, MySQL can also perform boolean full-text searches using the IN BOOLEAN MODE modifier.

mysql> SELECT * FROM articles WHERE MATCH (title,body)
    -> AGAINST ('+MySQL -YourSQL' IN BOOLEAN MODE);
+----+-----------------------+-------------------------------------+
| id | title                 | body                                |
+----+-----------------------+-------------------------------------+
|  1 | MySQL Tutorial        | DBMS stands for DataBase ...        |
|  2 | How To Use MySQL Well | After you went through a ...        |
|  3 | Optimizing MySQL      | In this tutorial we will show ...   |
|  4 | 1001 MySQL Tricks     | 1. Never run mysqld as root. 2. ... |
|  6 | MySQL Security        | When configured properly, MySQL ... |
+----+-----------------------+-------------------------------------+

This query retrieves all the rows that contain the word ``MySQL'' but that do not contain the word ``YourSQL''.

Some characteristics of boolean full-text searches:

They do not use the 50% threshold.
They do not automatically sort rows in order of decreasing relevance. You can see this from the preceding query result: The row with the highest relevance is the one that contains ``MySQL'' twice, but it is listed last, not first.
They can work even without a FULLTEXT index, although this would be slow.

The boolean full-text search capability supports the following operators:

+: A leading plus sign indicates that this word must be present in every row returned.
-: A leading minus sign indicates that this word must not be present in any row returned.
: By default (when neither plus nor minus is specified) the word is optional, but the rows that contain it will be rated higher. This mimicks the behavior of MATCH() ... AGAINST() without the IN BOOLEAN MODE modifier.
> <: These two operators are used to change a word's contribution to the relevance value that is assigned to a row. The > operator increases the contribution and the < operator decreases it. See the example below.
( ): Parentheses are used to group words into subexpressions. Parenthesized groups can be nested.
~: A leading tilde acts as a negation operator, causing the word's contribution to the row relevance to be negative. It's useful for marking noise words. A row that contains such a word will be rated lower than others, but will not be excluded altogether, as it would be with the - operator.
*: An asterisk is the truncation operator. Unlike the other operators, it should be appended to the word, not prepended.
": A phrase that is enclosed within double quote (`"') characters matches only rows that contain the phrase literally, as it was typed.

The following examples demonstrate some search strings that use boolean full-text operators:

'apple banana': Find rows that contain at least one of the two words.
'+apple +juice': Find rows that contain both words.
'+apple macintosh': Find rows that contain the word ``apple'', but rank rows higher if they also contain ``macintosh''.
'+apple -macintosh': Find rows that contain the word ``apple'' but not ``macintosh''.
'+apple +(>turnover <strudel)': Find rows that contain the words ``apple'' and ``turnover'', or ``apple'' and ``strudel'' (in any order), but rank ``apple turnover'' higher than ``apple strudel''.
'apple*': Find rows that contain words such as ``apple'', ``apples'', ``applesauce'', or ``applet''.
'"some words"': Find rows that contain the exact phrase ``some words'' (for example, rows that contain ``some words of wisdom'' but not ``some noise words''). Note that the `"' characters that surround the phrase are included within the search string. They are not the quotes that surround the search string itself.

13.6.2 Full-text Searches with Query Expansion

As of MySQL 4.1.1, full-text search supports query expansion (in particular, its variant ``blind query expansion''). This is generally useful when a search phrase is too short, which often means that the user is relying on implied knowledge that the full-text search engine usually lacks. For example, a user searching for ``database'' may really mean that ``MySQL'', ``Oracle'', ``DB2'', and ``RDBMS'' all are phrases that should match ``databases'' and should be returned, too. This is implied knowledge.

Blind query expansion (also known as automatic relevance feedback) is enabled by adding WITH QUERY EXPANSION following the search phrase. It works by performing the search twice, where the search phrase for the second search is the original search phrase concatenated with the few top found documents from the first search. Thus, if one of these documents contains the word ``databases'' and the word ``MySQL'', the second search will find the documents that contain the word ``MySQL'' even if they do not contain the word ``database''. The following example shows this difference:

mysql> SELECT * FROM articles
    -> WHERE MATCH (title,body) AGAINST ('database');
+----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+
| id | title             | body                                     |
+----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+
|  5 | MySQL vs. YourSQL | In the following database comparison ... |
|  1 | MySQL Tutorial    | DBMS stands for DataBase ...             |
+----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM articles
    -> WHERE MATCH (title,body)
    -> AGAINST ('database' WITH QUERY EXPANSION);
+----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+
| id | title             | body                                     |
+----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+
|  1 | MySQL Tutorial    | DBMS stands for DataBase ...             |
|  5 | MySQL vs. YourSQL | In the following database comparison ... |
|  3 | Optimizing MySQL  | In this tutorial we will show ...        |
+----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Another example could be searching for books by Georges Simenon about Maigret, when a user is not sure how to spell ``Maigret''. A search for ``Megre and the reluctant witnesses'' will find only ``Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses'' without query expansion. A search with query expansion will find all books with the word ``