how to get current datetime in SQL?

Question

Want to get current datetime to insert into lastModifiedTime column. I am using MySQL database. My questions are:

1. is there a function available in SQL? or

2. it is implementation depended so each database has its own function for this?

3. what is the function available in MySQL?

Answer 1

I always just use NOW():

INSERT INTO table (lastModifiedTime) VALUES (NOW())

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/date-and-time-functions.html#function_now