Question

Is there a quick and easy way of telling if a table has changed in SQL Server? (I’m using SQL Server 2005). Something like an incrementing ID somewhere that updates on each INSERT, DELETE or UPDATE that I can keep track of. I noticed there is a sys.objects.modify_date column for each table, but I don’t think it’s quite what I want because the docs say:

Date the object was last modified by
using an ALTER statement. If the
object is a table or a view,
modify_date also changes when a
clustered index on the table or view
is created or altered.

Answer 1

Take a look at sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats from Pinal Dave. From the link:

SELECT OBJECT_NAME(OBJECT_ID) AS DatabaseName, last_user_update,*
FROM sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats
WHERE database_id = DB_ID( 'AdventureWorks')
AND OBJECT_ID=OBJECT_ID('test')