The UCASE() Function

The UCASE() function converts the value of a field to uppercase.

Syntax

SELECT UCASE(column_name) FROM table_name;

The LCASE() Function

The LCASE() function converts the value of a field to lowercase.

Syntax

SELECT LCASE(column_name) FROM table_name;

MID() Example

The following SQL statement selects the first four characters from the "City" column from the
"Customers" table:

Example

SELECT MID(City,1,4) AS ShortCity

FROM Customers;

The LEN() Function

The LEN() function returns the length of the value in a text field.

Syntax

SELECT LEN(column_name) FROM table_name;

SELECT CustomerName,LEN(Address) as LengthOfAddress

FROM Customers;

The ROUND() Function

The ROUND() function is used to round a numeric field to the number of decimals specified.
SELECT ROUND(column_name,decimals) FROM table_name;

SELECT ProductName, ROUND(Price,0) AS RoundedPrice

FROM Products;

ABS(X)
The ABS() function returns the absolute value of X. Consider the following
example:

mysql> SELECT ABS(2);

+---------------------------------------------------------+
| ABS(2) |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| 2 |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT ABS(-2);

+---------------------------------------------------------+
| ABS(2) |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| 2 |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

TRUNCATE(X,D)
This function is used to return the value of X truncated to D number of
decimal places. If D is 0, then the decimal point is removed. If D is negative,
then D number of values in the integer part of the value is truncated.
Consider the following example:
mysql>SELECT TRUNCATE(7.536432,2);
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| TRUNCATE(7.536432,2) |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| 7.53 |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

SQRT(X)
This function returns the non-negative square root of X. Consider the
following example:

mysql>SELECT SQRT(49);
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| SQRT(49) |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| 7 |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

FLOOR(X)
This function returns the largest integer value that is not greater than X.

mysql>SELECT FLOOR(7.55);
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| FLOOR(7.55) |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| 7 |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
POW(X,Y)
POWER(X,Y)
These two functions return the value of X raised to the power of Y.

mysql> SELECT POWER(3,3);

+---------------------------------------------------------+
| POWER(3,3) |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| 27 |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

MOD(N,M)
This function returns the remainder of N divided by M. Consider the
following example:

mysql>SELECT MOD(29,3);
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| MOD(29,3) |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| 2 |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

OCT(N)
The OCT() function returns the string representation of the octal number N.
This is equivalent to using CONV(N,10,8).

mysql>SELECT OCT(12);
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| OCT(12) |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| 14 |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

CEIL(X)
CEILING(X)
This function returns the smallest integer value that is not smaller than X.
Consider the following example:

mysql> SELECT CEILING(3.46);

+---------------------------------------------------------+
| CEILING(3.46) |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| 4 |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT CEIL(-6.43);

+---------------------------------------------------------+
| CEIL(-6.43) |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| -6 |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Date Function:
SQL Dates
The most difficult part when working with dates is to be sure that the format of
the date you are trying to insert, matches the format of the date column in the
database.

As long as your data contains only the date portion, your queries will work as
expected. However, if a time portion is involved, it gets complicated.
Before talking about the complications of querying for dates, we will look at the
most important built-in functions for working with dates.

MySQL Date Functions

The following table lists the most important built-in date functions in MySQL:

Function Description

NOW() Returns the current date and time

CURDATE() Returns the current date

CURTIME() Returns the current time

DATE() Extracts the date part of a date or date/time expression

EXTRACT() Returns a single part of a date/time

DATE_ADD() Adds a specified time interval to a date

DATE_SUB() Subtracts a specified time interval from a date

DATEDIFF() Returns the number of days between two dates

 DATE_FORMAT() Displays date/time data in different formats

SQL Server Date Functions

The following table lists the most important built-in date functions in SQL Server:

Function Description

GETDATE() Returns the current date and time

DATEPART() Returns a single part of a date/time

DATEADD() Adds or subtracts a specified time interval from a date

DATEDIFF() Returns the time between two dates

CONVERT() Displays date/time data in different formats

SQL Date Data Types

MySQL comes with the following data types for storing a date or a date/time
value in the database:

 DATE - format YYYY-MM-DD

  DATETIME - format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS
 TIMESTAMP - format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS
 YEAR - format YYYY or YY

SQL Server comes with the following data types for storing a date or a
date/time value in the database:

 DATE - format YYYY-MM-DD

 DATETIME - format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS
 SMALLDATETIME - format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS
 TIMESTAMP - format: a unique number

Note: The date types are chosen for a column when you create a new table in
your database!

For an overview of all data types available, go to our complete Data Types
reference.

SQL Working with Dates

You can compare two dates easily if there is no time component involved!

Assume we have the following "Orders" table:

OrderId ProductName OrderDate

1 Geitost 2008-11-11

2 Camembert Pierrot 2008-11-09

3 Mozzarella di Giovanni 2008-11-11

4 Mascarpone Fabioli 2008-10-29

Now we want to select the records with an OrderDate of "2008-11-11" from the
table above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE OrderDate='2008-11-11'

The result-set will look like this:

OrderId ProductName OrderDate

1 Geitost 2008-11-11

3 Mozzarella di Giovanni 2008-11-11

Now, assume that the "Orders" table looks like this (notice the time component
in the "OrderDate" column):

OrderId ProductName OrderDate

1 Geitost 2008-11-11 13:23:44

2 Camembert Pierrot 2008-11-09 15:45:21

3 Mozzarella di Giovanni 2008-11-11 11:12:01

 4 Mascarpone Fabioli 2008-10-29 14:56:59

If we use the same SELECT statement as above:

SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE OrderDate='2008-11-11'