Question

I have a table (tblMessage) with columns (id, title, contents, publishingDateTime, status). The publishingDateTime column is the Date in which the message will publish. I want to change the value of column (status) automatically from (pending to published – OR – from false to true) when it is reached to its publishingDateTime.

How it is possible in Sql Server 2005?

Answer 1

Probably the easiest way is to not change the value at all. Instead, use a calculated column, with logic such as:

status as (case when publishingDateTime > getdate() then 'Published' else 'Pending' end)

This goes in the create table statement and is explained here.

You can also do something similar by creating a view and doing all access to the table through a view (often a good idea anyway).

As an example, I the create table statement would look like:

create table xxx (
    -- all your columns go here
    status as (case when publishingDateTime > getdate() then 'Published' else 'Pending' end)
)

For a view, you would do something like:

create view vw_SMS as
    select sms.*, 
           (case when publishingDateTime > getdate() then 'Published' else 'Pending'
            end) as status
    from SMS

It is actually better practice not to use the * in the view, but to list out all the columns.