Re: Determining when a row was inserted

Reply at bottom...

On Fri, 2005-06-03 at 13:40, Alex Turner wrote:
> One might even suggest that this should really be a default for all
> tables everywhere, because at some time or another, someone wants to
> know when something got put in the database...
>
> Alex.
>
> On 6/3/05, Wiebe de Jong <wiebedj(at)shaw(dot)ca> wrote:
> The way I do it is to add a timestamp field with a default
> value of now().
> Unfortunately, this won't help with any records that have
> already been
> created.
>
> Wiebe
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org
> [mailto:pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org] On Behalf Of Terry
> Lee Tucker
> Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 5:51 AM
> To: pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
> Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Determining when a row was inserted
>
> I don't think there is a way to do that. You'll have to create
> an audit
> table
> and a rule to update it or you'll have to add a column to the
> table and a
> trigger to update it.
>
> On Thursday 02 June 2005 01:22 am, Eisenhut, Glenn saith:
> > Folks - hi
> >
> > Is it possible to determine when a row was inserted into a
> table using the
> > system catalogs or such. I have the situation where I need
> to find out
> when
> > a user was added to a user table - the table was not setup
> with a date to
> > track this.

No, this is a terrible idea as a default. while I wouldn't mind having
a switch for it, the cost of storing a timestamp AND having to produce
it for each insert is not worth it, since there are just as likely to be
tables no one cares a wit about when they were last changed.

That kind of designing is what leads to bloated, overweight programs...