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);