Name
NOW()
Synopsis
NOW()
This function returns the current date and time. The format
returned is yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.nnnnnn
,
unless the function is used in a numeric calculation. Then it will
return the data in a yyyymmdd
format. It’s
synonymous with LOCALTIME() and LOCALTIMESTAMP(). Here is an
example:
SELECT NOW( ) AS Now, NOW( ) + 105008 AS '1 hour, 50 min., 8 sec. Later'; +---------------------+-------------------------------+ | Now | 1 hour, 50 min., 8 sec. Later | +---------------------+-------------------------------+ | 2007-03-18 20:08:30 | 20070318305838.000000 | +---------------------+-------------------------------+
By adding 105,008 to the current time, the hour is increased by
1, the minutes by 50, and the seconds by 8, and the time is displayed
in the second field without dashes. Notice that the results show the
hours to be 30 now and not 6, and the date wasn’t adjusted. Raw adding
of time is usually not a good alternative to functions such as
DATE_ADD()
or
TIME_ADD()
.
The NOW()
function is similar to the
SYSDATE() function in that they both return the
current datetime in the same format. However, the
NOW()
function returns the time the SQL
statement began, whereas SYSDATE()
returns
the time the function was invoked. This can lead to differences when
long triggers or stored procedures run; an embedded
SYSDATE()
will then reflect a later time than
NOW()
. For this reason, there are potential
problems using SYSDATE()
with regard to
replication. See the description of SYSDATE() ...
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