<p><font size="2">Andrew Dunstan wrote:<br /> <...><br /> ><br /> > Can someone please give a good,
concreteuse case for this stuff? "Might<br /> > be nice to have" doesn't cut it, I'm afraid. In particular, I'd like
to<br/> > know why logging statements won't do the trick here.<br /> ><br /><br /> Please pardon the kibbitzer
intrusion...<br /><br /> Informix has this feature and I've often yearned for it in PostgreSQL (although it is low on
mypersonal priorities). Typical use case I've run into is working on legacy databases where the original DBA is gone or
senile(deprecating self-reference not to applied to any one on this list) and I need to make sense of a muddle of
similarlynamed tables or functions with the same structure but different row counts or variant codings. The logs have
longsince been offlined to gosh knows where or lost -- we're talking 5 or more years of activity -- and even scripts
maybe suspect (the checked in script might refer to an original table but the DBA made on the fly changes) or some
otherDBA-like creature did things without proper procedures being followed.<br /><br /> Having that date has been
criticalto resolving those issues of which table came in which order. It also gives a time window to use to go check
oldemails, archives, etc. for more information.<br /><br /> Last update of data seems prohibitively expensive; if a
userwants that a trigger and a 2nd table could well do that. Last DDL mod ... I could see the use but my old workhorse
doesn'toffer it so it never occurred to me to want it. Until know. '-)<br /><br /> But this request is adding metadata,
Iagree. But with my vague understandings adding a date or time stamp for table creation wouldn't be a large bloat and
ifonly required at creation seems low overhead.<br /><br /> But maybe only bad DBAs need it. Or good DBAs who inherit
systemsfrom bad ones ?<br /><br /> Sorry for the crufty posting -- my web client has recently deteriorated in terms of
messageformatting.<br /><br /> Greg Williamson<br /> Senior DBA<br /> DigitalGlobe<br /><br /> Confidentiality Notice:
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