How to get the Current Server Time in MySQL

In this blog post, we will see how to get the current server time in the MySQL session.

Ways to get the time

Way 1 - use the predefined function now()

We can use the now() function with the select statement to get the current serer time in the MySQL session.

Command Output

MariaDB [itsraghz]> select now();
+---------------------+
| now()               |
+---------------------+
| 2021-06-13 14:15:44 |
+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Way 2 - use the predefined function now() with the from dual clause

As a best / standard practice, we can add the from dual clause with the select now() statement.

Command Output

MariaDB [itsraghz]> select now() from dual;
+---------------------+
| now()               |
+---------------------+
| 2021-06-13 14:15:50 |
+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

MariaDB [itsraghz]>

Way 2 - with a meaningful column name in the output using AS clause

The default output column name comes with the name of the function unless it is modified explicitly. We can modify it via the AS <Name> clause.

This way, we can have a short but meaningful name for a better understanding.

Command Output

MariaDB [itsraghz]> select now() as "Current Server Time" from dual;
+---------------------+
| Current Server Time |
+---------------------+
| 2021-06-13 14:58:07 |
+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)

MariaDB [itsraghz]>

Cheers,
RM…
Raghavan alias Saravanan Muthu
13 Jun 2021 | Sun | 14 04 PM IST