When is a timestamp (auto) updated? - mysql

Question

If I have a column in a table of type TIMESTAMP and has as default: CURRENT_TIMESTAMP does this column get updated to the current timestamp if I update the value
of any other column in the the same row?
It seems that it does not but I am not sure if this is what should happen.
I can not understand what this means (from MySQL documentation):
If the column is auto-updated, it is automatically updated to the
current timestamp when the value of any other column in the row is
changed from its current value. The column remains unchanged if all
other columns are set to their current values. To prevent the column
from updating when other columns change, explicitly set it to its
current value. To update the column even when other columns do not
change, explicitly set it to the value it should have]2

Answer 1

Give the command SHOW CREATE TABLE whatever
Then look at the table definition.
It probably has a line like this
logtime TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
in it. DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP means that any INSERT without an explicit time stamp setting uses the current time. Likewise, ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP means that any update without an explicit timestamp results in an update to the current timestamp value.
You can control this default behavior when creating your table.
Or, if the timestamp column wasn't created correctly in the first place, you can change it.
ALTER TABLE whatevertable
CHANGE whatevercolumn
whatevercolumn TIMESTAMP NOT NULL
DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;
This will cause both INSERT and UPDATE operations on the table automatically to update your timestamp column. If you want to update whatevertable without changing the timestamp, that is,
To prevent the column from updating when other columns change
then you need to issue this kind of update.
UPDATE whatevertable
SET something = 'newvalue',
whatevercolumn = whatevercolumn
WHERE someindex = 'indexvalue'
This works with TIMESTAMP and DATETIME columns. (Prior to MySQL version 5.6.5 it only worked with TIMESTAMPs) When you use TIMESTAMPs, time zones are accounted for: on a correctly configured server machine, those values are always stored in UTC and translated to local time upon retrieval.

Answer 2

I think you have to define the timestamp column like this
CREATE TABLE t1
(
ts TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);
See here

Answer 3

An auto-updated column is automatically updated to the current timestamp when the value of any other column in the row is changed from its current value. An auto-updated column remains unchanged if all other columns are set to their current values.
To explain it let's imagine you have only one row:
-------------------------------
| price | updated_at |
-------------------------------
| 2 | 2018-02-26 16:16:17 |
-------------------------------
Now, if you run the following update column:
update my_table
set price = 2
it will not change the value of updated_at, since price value wasn't actually changed (it was already 2).
But if you have another row with price value other than 2, then the updated_at value of that row (with price <> 3) will be updated to CURRENT_TIMESTAMP.

Answer 4

Add a trigger in database:
DELIMITER //
CREATE TRIGGER update_user_password
BEFORE UPDATE ON users
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
IF OLD.password <> NEW.password THEN
SET NEW.password_changed_on = NOW();
END IF;
END //
DELIMITER ;
The password changed time will update only when password column is changed.

Answer 5

Adding where to find UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP because for new people this is a confusion.
Most people will use phpmyadmin or something like it.
Default value you select CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
Attributes (a different drop down) you select UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP