For formatting dates in MySQL one can use the DATE_FORMAT function like DATE_FORMAT(`date_col or value`, dateFormatString)

In a select query, that looks like SELECT DATE_FORMAT(`date_col or value`, dateFormatString) FROM `tableName`
. In case one wants to use the server current date, the query would look like SELECT DATE_FORMAT(NOW(), dateFormatString) FROM `tableName`

For a detailed explanation of the options that can be in a dateFormatString, read the MySQL date related page (dev.mysql.com/doc/).

In the general examples below, I will use the date 22 April 2007 16:15:23 (date of creation of this article)

Language Format String Output
English %m/%d/%Y 04/22/2007
English %m/%d/%Y %H:%i 04/22/2007 16:15
English %a, %D %b %Y %H:%i Sun, 22nd Apr 2007 16:15
Français %d-%m-%Y 22-04-2007
Français %d-%m-%Y %H:%i 22-04-2007 16:15
Français %a, %D %b %Y %H:%i Dim, 22 Avr 2007 16:15
Ikinyarwanda %d-%m-%Y 22-04-2007
Ikinyarwanda %d-%m-%Y %H:%i 22-04-2007 16:15
Ikinyarwanda %a, %D %b %Y %H:%i Cyu, 22 Mata 2007 16:15
Svenska %Y-%m-%d 2007-04-22
Svenska %Y-%m-%d %H:%i 2007-04-22 16:15
Svenska %Y-%m-%d %H:%i 22-april-2007 16:15

For PHP formatString, visit http://www.php.net/date