How to select dates from a date field

Let's say you have a field in MySQL that stores data in the date format ('YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss) and you want to select the distinct elements of this date like day, minute or second

To do this you can use MySQL's built in date functions in the query:

SELECT YEAR(fieldname) as year, MONTH(fieldname) as month, DAY(fieldname) as day, HOUR(fieldname) as hour, MINUTE(fieldname) as minute, SECOND(fieldname) as second FROM mytable

for more information check out the MySQL documentation page about this:

MySQL Date and Time functions (external link)