Question: Is it possible to format a date field in a SELECT \* query? I want to get all of the columns from my table but need a different format from the date.

Something like:

```
SELECT *, FORMATDATE(date,'%m-%d-%y') AS date FROM my_table;

```

or do I have to process it in php after the query?

Answer: 
Use [DATE\_FORMAT](http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/date-and-time-functions.html#function_date-format):

```
SELECT *, DATE_FORMAT(date, "%m-%d-%y") AS date FROM my_table;

```
If you are writing application containing different timezones and formats better practice will be using UNIX timestamp stored in int(8) field, otherwise you can format date fields in queries.