The CURTIME function in MySQL is used to retrieve the current time in the format ‘HH:MM:SS’ (hours, minutes, seconds). This function does not require any arguments and is invoked without parentheses. When called, it returns the current server time.

Example

Here is a basic example of how to use the CURTIME function:

SELECT CURTIME();

The result will be a time value in the ‘HH:MM:SS’ format.

You can also use the CURTIME function in conjunction with other SQL statements, such as in a SELECT statement to retrieve the current time along with other columns from a table:

SELECT column1, column2, CURTIME() AS current_time
FROM your_table;

In this example, the CURTIME function is aliased as current_time in the result set.

It’s important to note that the time returned by CURTIME is based on the server’s system time. If you need to work with a specific time zone, you may want to consider using the CONVERT_TZ function to convert the server’s time to the desired time zone.

SELECT CONVERT_TZ(CURTIME(), 'UTC', 'America/New_York') AS ny_time;

In this example, the CONVERT_TZ function is used to convert the current time from UTC to the ‘America/New_York’ time zone. Replace ‘America/New_York’ with the desired time zone identifier.

In summary, the CURTIME function in MySQL is a convenient way to obtain the current time on the server, and it can be employed in various SQL statements to retrieve or manipulate temporal data.