Convert Unix timestamp into human readable date using MySQL

Question

Use FROM_UNIXTIME():

SELECT
  FROM_UNIXTIME(timestamp) 
FROM 
  your_table;

See also: MySQL documentation on FROM_UNIXTIME().

What's missing from the other answers (as of this writing) and not directly obvious is that from_unixtime can take a second parameter to specify the format like so:

SELECT
  from_unixtime(timestamp, '%Y %D %M %H:%i:%s')
FROM 
  your_table

I think what you're looking for is FROM_UNIXTIME()

Need a unix timestamp in a specific timezone?

Here's a one liner if you have quick access to the mysql cli:

mysql> select convert_tz(from_unixtime(1467095851), 'UTC', 'MST') as 'local time';

+---------------------+
| local time          |
+---------------------+
| 2016-06-27 23:37:31 |
+---------------------+

Replace 'MST' with your desired timezone. I live in Arizona 🌵 thus the conversion from UTC to MST.

Why bother saving the field as readable? Just us AS

SELECT theTimeStamp, FROM_UNIXTIME(theTimeStamp) AS readableDate
               FROM theTable
               WHERE theTable.theField = theValue;

EDIT: Sorry, we store everything in milliseconds not seconds. Fixed it.

You can use the DATE_FORMAT function. Here's a page with examples, and the patterns you can use to select different date components.

Easy and simple way:

select from_unixtime(column_name, '%Y-%m-%d') from table_name