Hi,

How, if at all, could I add a column to a table in Oracle 9i in which
the column would record time and date, and its default value would be
the time the row was inserted. My objective is to avoid editing SQL
statements to include "SYSDATE" calls. What I would like is taht
whenever a row is INSERTED, the time the row was inserted is recorded
in this new column I create.

I don't want anything to happen on UPDATEs.

Thanks, - Dave

<laredotornado (AT) zipmail (DOT) com> wrote

: Hi,
:
: How, if at all, could I add a column to a table in Oracle 9i in which
: the column would record time and date, and its default value would be
: the time the row was inserted. My objective is to avoid editing SQL
: statements to include "SYSDATE" calls. What I would like is taht
: whenever a row is INSERTED, the time the row was inserted is recorded
: in this new column I create.
:
: I don't want anything to happen on UPDATEs.
:
: Thanks, - Dave
:

use 'alter table add' to add a column
use the 'default' clause to have the default value on insert be sysdate
however, since users can override default values, create a BEFORE INSERT --
FOR EACH ROW trigger on the table to force the column value to sysdate (many
examples available by googling)

++ mcs