The DATE function extracts the date part from specified argument, and returns it as MM/DD/YYYY' format string. Arguments that can be specified are DATE, TIMESTAMP and DATETIME types. The return value is a VARCHAR type.
0 is not allowed in the argument value corresponding to year, month, and day; however, if 0 is inputted in every argument value corresponding to date and time, string where 0 is specified for every date value is returned.
DATE(date)
SELECT DATE('2010-02-27 15:10:23');
date('2010-02-27 15:10:23')
==============================
'02/27/2010'
SELECT DATE(NOW());
date( SYS_DATETIME )
======================
'04/01/2010'
SELECT DATE('0000-00-00 00:00:00');
date('0000-00-00 00:00:00')
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'00/00/0000'