MySQL NOW(): Current Date and Time with Examples

SELECT NOW();

The result is the current date and time for the MySQL session in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS form.

MySQL can coerce NOW() to a numeric context, but for application code it is clearer to keep temporal values as date/time values and format them explicitly when needed. Example of numeric coercion:

YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.ffffff

NOW() to get todays, yesterday and tomorrow date with time with sample queries

SELECT NOW()- INTERVAL 1 HOUR  AS One_hour_back,
 NOW() AS Present, 
 NOW()+ INTERVAL 1 HOUR AS One_hour_After

One_hour_back	Present	One_hour_After
2026-09-29 13:45:42	2026-09-29 14:45:42	2026-09-29 15:45:42

Yesterday & Tomorrow date by using NOW()

SELECT NOW()- INTERVAL 1 DAY  AS Yesterday, 
NOW() AS Today, 
NOW()+ INTERVAL 1 DAY AS Tomorrow

Yesterday	Today	Tomorrow
2026-09-28 14:45:42	2026-09-29 14:45:42	2026-09-30 14:45:42

Queries using Date and Time

We may require to collect records of last 5 hours or last 24 hours. Here are some queries to find out records based on date and times.
Queries using Date with time

Last Month , Today and Next Month

SELECT NOW()- INTERVAL 1 MONTH  AS LastMonth, 
NOW() AS Today, 
NOW()+ INTERVAL 1 MONTH AS NextMonth

Last Month	Today	Next Month
2026-08-29 14:45:42	2026-09-29 14:45:42	2026-10-29 14:45:42

Matching only date part ( not time ) with datetime field or Now()

We may store date with time in a table in the above mentioned date and time format. However we can compare the date part only ( without time ) to match the records. Example : We may be storing date and time of login of members in a table but want display all the login members of today or a particular date.

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE DATE(date_column)='2019-12-26'

To match current or today's date

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE DATE(date_column)=CURDATE()

Adding current date and time by default to a record.

While storing a record MySQL can automatically insert date and time in a column. Read more on how to store default date and time in MySQL table here.
SQL Date References Group By in Date field DAYOFWEEK() : Get weekdays like Sunday , Monday .. etc
SQL file using NOW() queries

All Date & Time Functions CURDATE()

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NOW() : Current Date & Time in MySQL