Re: [Phpgroupware-developers] Re: timestamps with my MySQL in schema_proc

[Michael Dean]

On Tue, 2003-06-10 at 09:35, address@hidden wrote:
> I have nothing against the datetime data type, but it does not provide
> the functionality, I am looking for, i.e. automatically being updated
> without having to set its value.

You can still use a datetime and set the default to now().

> If this functionality does not exist in other databases, this is a
> valid point, but why then let postgresql use the timestamp? Also I
> think it would be preferable, to tell phpgroupware developers that if
> they want to have a portable application to not use automatic
> timestamps but to use datetime and set it manually, instead of forcing
> them to not use timestamp. For example, I am developing an
> application, which is meant to run on MySQL, and I am willing to
> sacrifice portability for the convenience of simpler code with the
> timestamp data type.

Postgres timestamp is a datetime representation.  It has also been made
obsolete with 7.3.

> Also I am not convinced by the fact that multiple timestamps are
> updated differently in MySQL and other databases, since normally why
> would you need several *timestamps*, if all they tell you is when the
> row was updated. In other words, I do not think, that the fact that a
> data type behaves strangely in strange cases, should prevent us from
> using it in the normal cases.

I have experience in several RDBMS', including MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL,
Sybase, and some Oracle.  The datatypes were chosen to provide maximum
portability and retain similar behavior.  The developer shouldn't have
to worry about these differences.

Mike