title: SQL Date_Format Month Number to Month Name
body: <p>I have an issue in regards to trying to run a sql statement that returns the values of a column called month(of which I have defined as a varchar type, but only has integer values 1-12) as the associated month name. So, for example, the query would return a value of 1 as january. The issue I have is I am trying to use date_format</p>
  
  <pre><code>     select date_format(month,'%M')from db.table name
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but the values return as null. I was informed that the month values have to be a 'date' type in order for date_format to work. However, the values in this column 'month' are simply integers. So I run into the issue of not being able to assign the date type to the month columns because they're just integers and not correct format for dates? How could I take these single integers and return the month then?</p>