Beginning with MySQL 4.1.2, you have more flexible control over when automatic TIMESTAMP initialization and updating occur and which column should have those behaviors:


You can assign the current timestamp as the default value and the auto-update value, as before. But now it is possible to have just one automatic behavior or the other, or neither of them.
You can specify which TIMESTAMP column to automatically initialize or update to the current date and time. This no longer need be the first TIMESTAMP column.


The following discussion describes the revised syntax and behavior. Note that this information applies only to TIMESTAMP columns for tables not created with MAXDB mode enabled. As noted earlier in this section, MAXDB mode causes columns to be created as DATETIME columns.
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