Different date format characters used by MySQL DATE_FORMAT() function are as follows −
| Date Format Character | Meaning |
|---|---|
| %a | It is used to abbreviate the names of the weekdays like Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri and Sat. |
| %b | It is used to abbreviate the names of the month like Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec. |
| %c | It is used to abbreviate the number of the month like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. There will be no leading zero. |
| %D | It is used to abbreviate the day of the month with an ordinal suffix like 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th up to 31st. |
| %d | It is used to abbreviate the day of the month without any suffix like 1, 2, 3, 4 up to 31. |
| %j | It is used to abbreviate the day of the year in three digit format 001, 002, 003, 004 up to 366. |
| %M | It is used to abbreviate the names of the month like January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December. |
| %m | It is used to abbreviate the number of the month in two-digit formats like 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11 and 12. |
| %U | It is used to abbreviate the number of the weeks like 01, 02, 03, 04 up to 53. It assumes Sunday as the first week. |
| %u | It is also used to abbreviate the number of the weeks like 01, 02, 03, 04 up to 53. It assumes Monday as the first week. |
| %W | It is used to abbreviate the names of the weekdays like Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. |
| %Y | It is to abbreviate year in four digits format like 1997, 2005 etc. |
| %y | It is to abbreviate year in two digits format like 97, 05 etc. |
