NOW

Complete NOW() function reference: NOW([precision]) and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP synonyms, TIMESTAMP vs DATETIME types, timezone/DST handling, and fractional seconds.

Syntax

NOW([precision])
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP([precision])
LOCALTIME, LOCALTIME([precision])
LOCALTIMESTAMP
LOCALTIMESTAMP([precision])

Description

Returns the current date and time as a value in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS or YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.uuuuuu format, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context. The value is expressed in the current time zone.

MariaDB starting with 11.7

Current

These functions return SQL standard compliant types:

• NOW() and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP() return a TIMESTAMP value (analogous to the standard type TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE) which corresponds to the current point in time and is unambiguous around DST changes.

• LOCALTIMESTAMP returns a DATETIME value (analogous to the standard type TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE). Storing its result in a TIMESTAMP column can result in a data loss around DST changes.

< 11.7

The optional precision determines the microsecond precision. See Microseconds in MariaDB.

NOW() (or its synonyms) can be used as the default value for TIMESTAMP columns as well as.

When displayed in the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS table, a default CURRENT TIMESTAMP is displayed as current_timestamp() .

Changing the timestamp system variable with a SET timestamp statement affects the value returned by NOW(), but not by SYSDATE().

Examples

SELECT NOW();
+---------------------+
| NOW()               |
+---------------------+
| 2010-03-27 13:13:25 |
+---------------------+

SELECT NOW() + 0;
+-----------------------+
| NOW() + 0             |
+-----------------------+
| 20100327131329.000000 |
+-----------------------+

With precision:

SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(2);
+------------------------+
| CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(2)   |
+------------------------+
| 2018-07-10 09:47:26.24 |
+------------------------+

Used as a default TIMESTAMP:

CREATE TABLE t (createdTS TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);

SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA='test'
  AND COLUMN_NAME LIKE '%ts%'\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
           TABLE_CATALOG: def
            TABLE_SCHEMA: test
              TABLE_NAME: t
             COLUMN_NAME: ts
        ORDINAL_POSITION: 1
          COLUMN_DEFAULT: current_timestamp()
...

See Also

• Microseconds in MariaDB

• timestamp server system variable

_{This page is licensed: GPLv2, originally from fill_help_tables.sql}