LastChecked

LastChecked is a timestamp associated with a resource or process that records the most recent verification, inspection, or validation performed. It serves as a marker to indicate when the last quality assessment occurred and is commonly used to detect staleness and drive the scheduling of future checks.

In software systems, lastChecked is stored as a field in data records, configuration entries, or monitoring dashboards. It is often used in conjunction with lastUpdated or lastModified; while lastUpdated refers to content changes, lastChecked refers to the time a check was carried out, regardless of whether changes were detected. This distinction helps separate data modification from validation activity.

In monitoring and health-check workflows, lastChecked marks when the last probe completed. If the current time minus lastChecked exceeds the defined check interval, a new check is triggered. This enables timely detection of faults and appropriate alerting while avoiding unnecessary checks.

Data pipelines and caching scenarios use lastChecked to indicate when a cache entry or dataset was last validated against the source of truth. This supports cache expiration, data reconciliation, and integrity verification.

Format and reliability considerations include storing lastChecked in a standardized timestamp format (such as ISO 8601) using UTC, ensuring clock synchronization across systems, and handling missing values or gaps. Proper handling of lastChecked helps avoid misinterpretation of stale data and improves monitoring accuracy.

See also: lastUpdated, lastModified, timestamp, heartbeat, health check.