dateupdated

DateUpdated is a timestamp field used to record the most recent modification time of a data item, object, or document. It is commonly paired with a DateCreated or createdAt field to track the lifecycle of a record and is central to activities such as synchronization, auditing, and cache invalidation.

The concept is widely used across databases, content management systems, APIs, and software applications. In databases, a DateUpdated column or property is updated whenever the corresponding record changes. In web and application layers, it helps determine whether cached data is still fresh, enable incremental data transfers, and support debugging or historical analyses.

Formats and storage typically involve a datetime or timestamp type. ISO 8601 representations (for example, 2024-11-28T15:42:07Z) are common in APIs and logs, with UTC as a standard to avoid timezone ambiguity. DateUpdated is often indexed to speed up queries that sort or filter by last modification time.

Implementation considerations include ensuring updates occur automatically on modification, preferably on the server side or via database triggers, to avoid reliance on client clocks. It is common to use auto-update semantics in ORMs, and to set sensible defaults (such as null on creation or a current timestamp). Handling time zones consistently and deciding whether to include sub-second precision are practical considerations for accuracy and performance.

Naming conventions vary, with dateUpdated or updatedAt being common in camelCase or snake_case styles. Some systems distinguish between lastModified and updatedAt, but the core idea remains the same: a reliable record of the most recent update.