What is the function of the MySQL str_to_date function?

The STR_TO_DATE function in MySQL is used to convert a string into a date format. Its purpose is to convert a string in a specific format into a date or time type supported by MySQL.

The syntax of the function is as follows: STR_TO_DATE(str, format)

In this case, str refers to the string to be converted, while format is used to specify the format of the string. The format parameter needs to be defined with specific format symbols in order to match the date and time components in the str parameter.

For example, you can use the following code to convert a string into a date type:
SELECT STR_TO_DATE(‘2021-03-15’, ‘%Y-%m-%d’) AS date;

The above code converts the string ‘2021-03-15’ into a date type and returns the result as a column named date.

The STR_TO_DATE function is commonly used to convert string-type date data into date type, making it easier to compare, calculate, and sort dates in MySQL.