You can convert dates to character strings using the DATE_FORMAT(date, format) function. MySQL supports the following basic formatting codes:
► %a Abbreviated weekday name (Sun..Sat)
► %b Abbreviated month name (Jan..Dec)
► %c Month, numeric (0..12)
► %D Day of the month with English suffix (0th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd,...)
► %d Day of the month, numeric (00..31)
► %e Day of the month, numeric (0..31)
► %f Microseconds (000000..999999)
► %H Hour (00..23)
► %h Hour (01..12)
► %I Hour (01..12)
► %i Minutes, numeric (00..59)
► %j Day of year (001..366)
► %k Hour (0..23)
► %l Hour (1..12)
► %M Month name (January..December)
► %m Month, numeric (00..12)
► %p AM or PM
► %r Time, 12-hour (hh:mm:ss followed by AM or PM)
► %S Seconds (00..59)
► %s Seconds (00..59)
► %T Time, 24-hour (hh:mm:ss)
► %W Weekday name (Sunday..Saturday)
► %w Day of the week (0=Sunday..6=Saturday)
► %Y Year, numeric, four digits
► %y Year, numeric (two digits)