Can you stop a DEFAULT TIMESTAMP field from updating on an update statement?

[former_SQLA_member1694882]

Is there a way of stopping DEFAULT TIMESTAMP columns from updating the timestamp when you perform an UPDATE statement?

We need to run an update statement on a table to fix up some data, however we don't want that update to be reflected by the UpdatedAt default timestamp column.

[MCMartin · Accepted solution]

You can just include the column with a value in your update statement:

Update table set UpdatedAt ='2012-01-01'

Will change the value to the 1st January...

you can even do something like this:

Update table set UpdatedAt = UpdatedAt, ...

This will leave the value as before

[VolkerBarth · Accepted solution]

Just to add: The method Martin has shown does work that way since a DEFAULT TIMESTAMP is a default (though a particular one), and you can always overwrite a column default value simply by specifying a value for the column...

We use the "set UpdatedAt = UpdatedAt" form regularly to prevent such meaningful timestamps from getting updated when doing "maintenance tasks".

[Breck_Carter · Accepted solution]

Don't tell the auditors... 🙂

[VolkerBarth · Accepted solution]

Well, the TRANSLOG will tell:)