MySQL in a Nutshell

Name

TO_DAYS( )

Synopsis

TO_DAYS(date)

This function returns the date based on the number of days given, which are from the beginning of the currently used standard calendar. Problems occur for dates before 1582 when the Gregorian calendar became the standard. The opposite of this function is FROM_DAYS( ).

SELECT (TO_DAYS('2005-01-15') -
        TO_DAYS('2005-01-01'))
           AS 'Difference';
+------------+
| Difference |
+------------+
|         14 |
+------------+

In this example, the TO_DAYS( ) function is employed to calculate the difference in the number of days between the two dates.