Where in my query to place the CONVERT to convert DateTime to Date - sql

Question

Just learning SQL and I've searched many options about converting a DateTime into a Date, and I do not want current date. It's a super simple query from this website: https://sqlzoo.net/wiki/Guest_House_Assessment_Easy
SELECT booking_date, nights
FROM booking
WHERE guest_id=1183
But the output is with the timestamp and I just want the date. I've searched so many forums and tried all their suggestions, including this:
SELECT CONVERT(varchar(10), <col>, 101)
So I've done:
SELECT CONVERT(varchar(10), booking_date,101), nights
FROM booking
WHERE guest_id=1183
But I'm getting syntax errors. This is probably so simple and you'll all think me an idiot, but I'd greatly appreciate help. It's driving me nuts.

Answer 1

When I fiddled about at your sqlzoo link I got the error
execute command denied to user 'scott'#'localhost' for routine 'gisq.to_date'`.
When I googled gisq.to_date I got this link https://sqlzoo.net/wiki/Format_a_date_and_time
Which has examples of how this dialect represents dates. See if you can work it out. Something like this:
SELECT date_format(booking_date,'%d/%m/%Y')
FROM booking
You didn't post the error in your question which is a big mistake. When you get an error message, you actually have something to work from.
It is also very important to note that the query above returns a string, not a date. It's only good for display, not for date arithmetic
TBH that seems like a terrible site to learn on as it gives no clues about the dialect. it looks like Oracle but to_date and trunc don't work.

Answer 2

The use of convert() suggests that you think you are uinsg SQL Server. If you only want the date component of a date/time data type, then you can use:
SELECT CONVERT(DATE, booking_date), nights
FROM booking
WHERE guest_id = 1183;
The syntax error suggests that you are not using SQL Server.
CONVERT() is bespoke syntax for SQL Server. Examples of similar functionality in other databases are:
DATE(booking_date)
TRUNC(booking_date)
DATE_TRUNC('day', booking_date)
In addition, what you see also depends on the user-interface.
In your case, the data is being stored as a date with no time component, but the UI is showing the time. For that, you want to convert to a string. That site uses MariaDB -- which is really a flavor of MySQL-- and you would use:
DATE_FORMAT(booking_date, '%Y-%m-%d')