A TIMESTAMP data type allows you to record a date and time like DATETIME data type. But it has some interesting features when used on a table column:
► The first TIMESTAMP column in a table will be assigned with the current date and time, if it is not listed in an INSERT statement.
► The first TIMESTAMP column in a table will be assigned with the current date and time, if it is not listed in an UPDATE statement.
► If a TIMESTAMP column is assigned with NULL, the current date and time will be persisted to this column.
► You can turn off the default current date and time on INSERT by defining the column with "DEFAULT 0".
► The tutorial exercise below provides you 2 equivalent ways to create a TIMESTAMP column:
CREATE TABLE links (lastDate TIMESTAMP);
CREATE TABLE links (lastDate TIMESTAMP
DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);