MySQL in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Name

PERIOD_ADD()

Synopsis

PERIOD_ADD(yearmonth, number)

This function adds a specified number of months to a period, which is a string containing only the year and month in either yyyymm or yymm format. Here is an example:

SELECT CURDATE( ),
EXTRACT(YEAR_MONTH FROM CURDATE( )) 
AS 'Current Period',
PERIOD_ADD(EXTRACT(YEAR_MONTH FROM CURDATE( )), 1) 
AS 'Next Accounting Period';

+------------+----------------+------------------------+
| CURDATE( ) | Current Period | Next Accounting Period |
+------------+----------------+------------------------+
| 2008-12-15 |         200812 |                 200901 | 
+------------+----------------+------------------------+

Functions such as this one are particularly useful when you are building a program and need to design an SQL statement that will account for accounting periods that roll into the following year.