title: MySQL Datetime & timestamp for row level and table level
body: <p>I need to have three columns in all my tables to reflect these as per requirements:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Create date/time -> Date and time the
  row was created. This value should
  never change forever. </li>
  <li>Modified date/time -> Date and time only
  portions of the row was last modified.
  This value will always change if any
  detail in the row is changed.</li>
  <li>Updated date/time -> Date and time
  the entire row was last updated. This
  value will always change if all
  details in the row is changed.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>In addition I need to maintain same details but at table level-><br>
   - date/time table was created<br>
   - date/time the last row was inserted<br>
   - date/time last edit took place.  </p>
  
  <p>So two questions:</p>
  
  <p>1) For the 3 row cases of date/times: Which one needs to be datetime and which one timestamp?<br>
  2) For the 3 table level date/times: Can I store this in the same table somehow or do i need a separate table to store this info, and what functions can i use for this?</p>
  
  <p>End goal is to automate these date/times, because lot of data like for lookup tables will be entered/edited by end users from the front end so I need the DB to do all date/times on its own in the back without any manual insertions for these colunms.</p>
  
  <p>Also, I need to perform reporting on these date/times, hence need to ensure they can be manipulated at the code level for breaking down the date/times into days, weeks, months, years, hours &amp; minutes.</p>