MySQL in a Nutshell

Name

SUBDATE( )

Synopsis

SUBDATE(date, INTERVAL value type)

Use this function to subtract a time interval from the results of a date or time datatype column. If a negative value is given, the interval is added and is equivalent to the ADDDATE( ) function. This is an alias for the DATE_SUB( ) function. See DATE_ADD( ) for a table of incremental types.

SELECT SUBDATE(NOW( ), INTERVAL 1 DAY)
          AS 'Yesterday',
       SUBDATE(NOW( ), INTERVAL -1 DAY)
          AS 'Tomorrow';
+---------------------+---------------------+
| Yesterday           | Tomorrow            |
+---------------------+---------------------+
| 2004-05-09 16:11:56 | 2004-05-11 16:11:56 |
+---------------------+---------------------+

As of Version 4.1 of MySQL, for subtracting days the second argument of the function may simply be the number of days (i.e., just 1 instead of INTERVAL 1 DAY).