now Function

SQLite “now” is not actually a fuction, but “now” is a timestring parameter that is used in various SQLite functions to fetch the current date and time.

Syntax:

There are three types of syntax for now function in SQLite:

date('now')   

Or

time('now')  

Or

strftime(format, 'now')  

i.e.   

strftime('%Y-%m-%d','now')  

strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H-%M','now')  

strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H-%M-%S','now') 

The third syntax is used when expressing the current date/time using the strftime function. Here “format” can be anyone of the following:

Index	format	Explanation
1)	%Y	Year as 4 digits (0000 to 9999)
2)	%W	Week of year (00 to 53)
3)	%w	Day of week (0 to 6, where 0 is Sunday)
4)	%m	Month of year (01 to 12)
5)	%d	Day of month (00 to 31)
6)	%H	Hour (00 to 24)
7)	%M	Minute (00 to 25)
8)	%S	Seconds (00 to 59)
9)	%s	Seconds since 1970-01-01
10)	%f	Fractional seconds (SS.SSS)
11)	%j	Day of year (001 to 366)
12)	%J	Julian day as a numeric value

Example: Retrieve current date:

SELECT date('now');  

SELECT strftime('%Y-%m-%d','now');  

Output:

Example: Retrieve current time:

SELECT time('now');  (HH-MM-SS Format)  

SELECT strftime('%H-%M-%S','now');   (HH-MM-SS Format)   

SELECT strftime('%H-%M-%f','now');  (HH-MM-SS.SSS Format)   

SELECT strftime('%H-%M','now');  (HH-MM Format)

Output: