To some extent, you can convert a value from one temporal type to another. However, there may be some alteration of the value or loss of information. In all cases, conversion between temporal types is subject to the range of valid values for the resulting type. For example, although DATE, DATETIME, and TIMESTAMP values all can be specified using the same set of formats, the types do not all have the same range of values. TIMESTAMP values cannot be earlier than 1970 UTC or later than '2038-01-19 03:14:07' UTC. This means that a date such as '1968-01-01', while valid as a DATE or DATETIME value, is not valid as a TIMESTAMP value and is converted to 0.

Conversion of DATE values:

Conversion of DATETIME and TIMESTAMP values:

Conversion of TIME values:

MySQL converts a time value to a date or date-and-time value by parsing the string value of the time as a date or date-and-time. This is unlikely to be useful. For example, '23:12:31' interpreted as a date becomes '2032-12-31'. Time values not valid as dates become '0000-00-00' or NULL.

Prior to MySQL 5.1.18, when DATE values are compared with DATETIME values, the time portion of the DATETIME value is ignored, or the comparison could be performed as a string compare. Starting from MySQL 5.1.18, a DATE value is coerced to the DATETIME type by adding the time portion as '00:00:00'. To mimic the old behavior, use the CAST() function to cause the comparison operands to be treated as previously. For example:

date_col = CAST(datetime_col AS DATE)

Conversion of TIME or DATETIME values to numeric form (for example, by adding +0) results in a double-precision value with a microseconds part of .000000:

mysql> SELECT CURTIME(), CURTIME()+0;
+-----------+---------------+
| CURTIME() | CURTIME()+0   |
+-----------+---------------+
| 10:41:36  | 104136.000000 |
+-----------+---------------+
mysql> SELECT NOW(), NOW()+0;
+---------------------+-----------------------+
| NOW()               | NOW()+0               |
+---------------------+-----------------------+
| 2007-11-30 10:41:47 | 20071130104147.000000 |
+---------------------+-----------------------+