Detect time of last change on a Microsoft Access database table

Question

Does anyone know of a way to detect when the last time a Microsoft Access table has been changed (inserted into or updated)? We used OLEDB via ADO COM to communicate with a

Answer 1

The only way to detect if data in the table has changed is to perform a query against the table.

You must add a column of type DATETIME to the table e.g. named LastUpdatedDate that indicates the last updated date/time of each row. Make it NOT NULL so that you will have to write an updated DATETIME value to that column for each INSERT or UPDATE. Also, set the column to have a default of DATE() for the current date stamp or NOW() for the current date/time stamp. Then add a Validation Rule or CHECK constraint e.g. CHECK (LastUpdatedDate = NOW()) to ensure the column is actually updated on each UPDATE and INSERT.

Finally, run a MAX(LastUpdatedDate) query and you will get what you need.