how to convert weird varchar “time” to real time in mysql?

Question

I have a time value being stored in a database as a varchar(4) and I need to convert it to real time.

for example, if the time is \"23:59\" I want 11:59PM returned.

Answer 1

never mind, this works fine:

TIME_FORMAT(CONCAT(SUBSTRING(THE_TIME, 1,2), ':', SUBSTRING(THE_TIME, 3,4)), '%h%i')