How to get a list of months between two dates in mysql

SQLFiddle demo

select 
DATE_FORMAT(m1, '%b %Y')

from
(
select 
('2013-01-23' - INTERVAL DAYOFMONTH('2013-01-23')-1 DAY) 
+INTERVAL m MONTH as m1
from
(
select @rownum:=@rownum+1 as m from
(select 1 union select 2 union select 3 union select 4) t1,
(select 1 union select 2 union select 3 union select 4) t2,
(select 1 union select 2 union select 3 union select 4) t3,
(select 1 union select 2 union select 3 union select 4) t4,
(select @rownum:=-1) t0
) d1
) d2 
where m1<='2014-04-01'
order by m1

this is a practical solution, it's not so 'elegant' if you wanna see it that way, but it works, and you can make it a function and/or a stored procedure, just with a couple of parameters...

first, we need a table with some records, any table. we're gonna use this table, just as a row number table. (you'll need as many rows for the same amount of months you wanna display, having a large table is better) >>

SELECT CONCAT(table_schema, '.', table_name) as schema_table, table_rows
FROM   information_schema.TABLES
order by 2 desc limit 0,100

this will tell you, the top 100 tables with most records on your instance, i'm using the mysql.help table for this example, by default, this comes with some thousand records, and it's allways there...

set @start_date = '2013-01-23';
set @end_date = '2014-04-01';
set @months = -1;

select DATE_FORMAT(date_range,'%M, %Y') AS result_date from (
    select (date_add(@start_date, INTERVAL (@months := @months +1 ) month)) as date_range
    from mysql.help_topic a limit 0,1000) a
where a.date_range between @start_date and last_day(@end_date);

explained:

1. set date variales 2. set month value, for adding months 3. select for each row, a date (we add a month and increment the month variable on the same row) 4. filter dates that are between range 5. output formated dates.

this is the final output>>

January, 2013
February, 2013
March, 2013
April, 2013
May, 2013
June, 2013
July, 2013
August, 2013
September, 2013
October, 2013
November, 2013
December, 2013
January, 2014
February, 2014
March, 2014
April, 2014

Try this one:

select aDate from (
  select @maxDate - interval (a.a+(10*b.a)+(100*c.a)+(1000*d.a)) day aDate from
  (select 0 as a union all select 1 union all select 2 union all select 3
   union all select 4 union all select 5 union all select 6 union all
   select 7 union all select 8 union all select 9) a, /*10 day range*/
  (select 0 as a union all select 1 union all select 2 union all select 3
   union all select 4 union all select 5 union all select 6 union all
   select 7 union all select 8 union all select 9) b, /*100 day range*/
  (select 0 as a union all select 1 union all select 2 union all select 3
   union all select 4 union all select 5 union all select 6 union all
   select 7 union all select 8 union all select 9) c, /*1000 day range*/
  (select 0 as a union all select 1 union all select 2 union all select 3
   union all select 4 union all select 5 union all select 6 union all
   select 7 union all select 8 union all select 9) d, /*10000 day range*/
  (select @minDate := '2001-01-01', @maxDate := '2002-02-02') e
) f
where aDate between @minDate and @maxDate