Insert current date into a date column using T-SQL?

Question

I'm trying to insert a date when a user decides to deactivate or activate an UserID. I'm trying to use a SP to trigger that but apparantly this is harder than I thought it would be.

I can do a

SELECT GETDATE()

to get the date but is there a way to insert that information from GETDATE and put it into a column I want?

Answer 1

Couple of ways. Firstly, if you're adding a row each time a [de]activation occurs, you can set the column default to GETDATE() and not set the value in the insert. Otherwise,

UPDATE TableName SET [ColumnName] = GETDATE() WHERE UserId = @userId 

Answer 2

To insert a new row into a given table (tblTable) :

INSERT INTO tblTable (DateColumn) VALUES (GETDATE())

To update an existing row :

UPDATE tblTable SET DateColumn = GETDATE()
 WHERE ID = RequiredUpdateID

Note that when INSERTing a new row you will need to observe any constraints which are on the table - most likely the NOT NULL constraint - so you may need to provide values for other columns eg...

 INSERT INTO tblTable (Name, Type, DateColumn) VALUES ('John', 7, GETDATE())