I just want to have a “ModifyDate” column automatically populated for me when a record is either inserted or updated.
Should I be using triggers or is it OK to use a Computed Column?
(Using SSMS2005 and SQL Server 2005 Express)
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I just want to have a “ModifyDate” column automatically populated for me when a record is either inserted or updated.
Should I be using triggers or is it OK to use a Computed Column?
(Using SSMS2005 and SQL Server 2005 Express)
The INSERTed part is easy – just define a default value on that column, and when you insert a new row, do not specify a value for that column.
The UPDATE part is trickier – you will have to write a trigger that fires ON UPDATE, and then updates that column. I don’t think there’s any other way to do this in SQL Server.
Question is: do you really need the actual calendar date? If not, if you only want to have a “marker” as to whether or not a row has changed, check out the ROWVERSION column type (formerly known as
TIMESTAMP) instead.I don’t really see how you could use a computed column for this – you have to store that date somewhere, and keep it current with INSERT and each subsequent UPDATE – only a trigger will manage to do this.