MySQL/Language/Functions

Syntax

Function names are case insensitive. You can write them as you prefer:

 SELECT database() -- ok
 SELECT DataBase() -- ok
 SELECT DATABASE() -- ok

If the IGNORE_SPACE SQL_MODE is not set, you can not put a space between the function name and the first parenthesis. It would return a 1064 error. IGNORE_SPACE is usually 0. The reason is that the parser is faster if that flag is disabled. So:

 SELECT DATABASE () -- usually not accepted
 SELECT DATABASE() -- always works fine

However, this restriction only applies to the native MySQL functions. UDFs and stored functions may be written with a space after the name.

You can't use a value calculated in the SELECT clause as a constraint in the WHERE clause (its a chicken & egg problem); the WHERE clause is what determines the values in the SELECT clause. What you want is the HAVING clause which is applied *after* all matching rows have been found.

General functions

Type-independent functions.

BENCHMARK(times, expression)

Executes expression n times and returns how time it spent. Useful to find bottlenecks in SQL expressions.

 SELECT BENCHMARK(10000, 'hello');   -- Treatment in 0.0010 sec

CAST(value AS type)

Returns value converted in the specified type.

SELECT CAST(20130101 AS DATE);  -- 2013-01-01

CHARSET(string)

Returns the CHARACTER SET used by string.

SELECT CHARSET(20130101);  -- binary
SHOW CHARACTER SET;       -- displays all the different installed CHARACTER SET

COALESCE(value, ...)

Returns the first argument which is not NULL. If all arguments are NULL, returns NULL. There must be at least one argument.

SELECT COALESCE(NULL, 'hello', NULL);   -- hello

COERCIBILITY(string)

Returns the coercibility (between 0 to 5):

SELECT COERCIBILITY('hello');   -- 4

Coercibility	Meaning	Example
0	Explicit collation	Value with COLLATE clause
1	No collation	Concatenation of strings with different collations
2	Implicit collation	Column value
3	System constant	USER() return value
4	Coercible	Literal string
5	Ignorable	NULL or an expression derived from NULL

COLLATION(string)

Returns the COLLATION used by the string.

SELECT COLLATION('hello');   -- utf8_general_ci

CONNECTION_ID()

Returns the id of the current thread.

SELECT CONNECTION_ID();   -- 31

CONVERT(value, type)

Returns value converted to the specified type.

 SELECT CONVERT ('666', UNSIGNED INTEGER)

CONVERT(string USING charset)

Converts the passed string to the specified CHARACTER SET.

 SELECT CONVERT ('This is a text' USING utf8)

CURRENT_USER()

Returns the username and the hostname used in the current connection.

 SELECT CURRENT_USER()
 SELECT CURRENT_USER -- it's correct

DATABASE()

Returns the current database's name, set with the USE command.

 SELECT DATABASE()

FOUND_ROWS()

After a SELECT with a LIMIT clause and the SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS keyword, you can run another SELECT with the FOUND_ROWS() function. It returns the number of rows found by the previous query if it had no LIMIT clause.

 SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS * FROM stats ORDER BY id LIMIT 10 OFFSET 50
 SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS n

GREATEST(value1, value2, ...)

Returns the greatest argument passed.

IF(val1, val2, val3)

If val1 is TRUE, returns val2. If val1 is FALSE or NULL, returns val3.

IFNULL(val1, val2)

If val1 is NULL, returns val2; else, returns val1.

ISNULL(value)

If the value passed is NULL returns 1, else returns 0.

INTERVAL(val1, val2, val3, ...)

Returns the location of the first argument which is greater than the first one, beginning by zero in the integers in parameter:

SELECT INTERVAL(10, 20, 9, 8, 7);  -- 0
SELECT INTERVAL(10, 9, 20, 8, 7);  -- 1
SELECT INTERVAL(10, 9, 8, 20, 7);  -- 2
SELECT INTERVAL(10, 9, 8, 7, 20);  -- 3

NULLIF(val1, val2)

If val1 = val2, returns NULL; else, returns val1.

LAST_INSERT_ID()

Returns the last inserted ID in AUTO_INCREMENT from the database, which can avoid a SELECT when inserting two records where the second needs a foreign key to the first.

LEAST(value1, value2, ...)

Returns the minimum argument passed.

SUBSTR(string, start, size)

Cut a string:

SELECT SUBSTR('Hello World!', 7, 5); -- World

Date and time

There are plenty of date related functions.

 SELECT * FROM mytable
  WHERE datetimecol >= (CURDATE() - INTERVAL 1 YEAR)  AND
  datetimecol < (CURDATE() - INTERVAL 1 YEAR) INTERVAL 1 DAY;

 SELECT IF(DAYOFMONTH(CURDATE()) <= 15,
  DATE_FORMAT(CURDATE(), '%Y-%m-15'),
  DATE_FORMAT(CURDATE() + INTERVAL 1 MONTH, '%Y-%m-15')) AS next15
 FROM table;

 SELECT YEAR('2002-05-10'), MONTH('2002-05-10'), DAYOFMONTH('2002-05-10')

 SELECT PurchaseDate FROM table WHERE YEAR(PurchaseDate) <= YEAR(CURDATE())

 SELECT columns FROM table
 WHERE start_time >= '2004-06-01 10:00:00' AND end_time <= '2004-06-03 18:00:00'

 SELECT * FROM t1
 WHERE DATE_FORMAT(datetime_column, '%T') BETWEEN 'HH:MM:SS' AND 'HH:MM:SS'

 SELECT Start_time, End_time FROM Table
 WHERE Start_time >= NOW() - INTERVAL 4 HOUR
 
 SELECT NOW() + INTERVAL 60 SECOND

 SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2007-05-01'); -- 1177970400
 SELECT FROM_UNIXTIME(1177970400); -- 2007-05-01 00:00:00

Attention: convert('17/02/2016 15:49:03',datetime) or convert('17-02-2016 15:49:03',datetime) gives null, so an insert request replaces it by the same result as now(). This should be convert('2016-02-17 15:49:03',datetime) or convert('2016/02/17 15:49:03',datetime).

Aggregate functions

COUNT(field)

If * is given, instead of the name of a field, COUNT() returns the number of rows found by the query. It's commonly used to get the number of rows in a table.

 SELECT COUNT(*) FROM `antiques`

If the DISTINCT keyword is used, identical rows are counted only once.

 SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT *) FROM `antiques`

If a field name is given, returns the number of non-NULL values.

 SELECT COUNT(`cost`) FROM `antiques`

If a field name is given and the DISTINCT keyword is given, returns the number of non-NULL values, and identical values are counted only once.

 SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT `cost`) FROM `antiques`

You can count non-NULL values for an expression:

 SELECT COUNT(`longitude` + `latitude`) FROM `cities`

This returns the number of rows where longitude and latitude are both non-NULL.

MAX(field)

MAX() can be used to get the maximum value for an expression in the rows matching to a query. If no row matches the query, returns NULL.

 SELECT MAX(`cost`) FROM `antiques`
 SELECT MAX(LENGTH(CONCAT(`first_name`, ' ', `last_name`))) FROM `subscribers`

MIN(field)

MIN() can be used to get the minimum value for an expression in the rows matching to a query. If no row matches the query, returns NULL.

 SELECT MIN(`cost`) FROM `antiques`

AVG(field)

AVG() can be used to get the average value for an expression in the rows matching to a query. If no row matches the query, returns NULL.

 SELECT AVG(`cost`) FROM `antiques`

SUM(field)

SUM() can be used to get the sum of the values for an expression in the rows matching to a query. If no row matches the query, returns NULL.

If SUM(DISTINCT expression) is used, identical values are added only once. It has been added in MySQL 5.1.

 SELECT SUM(`cost`) FROM `antiques`

GROUP_CONCAT(field)

GROUP_CONCAT() can be used to concatenate values from all records for a group into a single string separated by a comma by default, or any additional token you like if placed as the optional second parameter.

 CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE product (
        id INTEGER, product_type VARCHAR(10), product_name VARCHAR(50)
    );

 INSERT INTO product VALUES
     (1, 'mp3', 'iPod'),
     (2, 'mp3', 'Zune'),
     (3, 'mp3', 'ZEN'),
     (4, 'notebook', 'Acer Eee PC'),
     (4, 'notebook', 'Everex CloudBook');

 SELECT * FROM product;

 SELECT product_type, group_concat(product_name)
 FROM product
 GROUP BY product_type;

 SELECT product_type, group_concat(' ', product_name)
 FROM product
 GROUP BY product_type;

Aggregate bit functions

General syntax:

 FUNCTION_NAME(''expression'')

These functions calculate expression for each row of the result set and perform the calculation between all the expressions. These are bitwise functions. The precision used is 64 bit.

AND

 SELECT BIT_AND(ip) FROM log

OR

 SELECT BIT_OR(ip) FROM log

(returns 0 if there are no rows)

XOR

 SELECT BIT_XOR(ip) FROM log

(returns 0 if there are no rows)