timestamp (Transact-SQL)

SQL Server > Data types > TimeStamp

Timestamp in SQL Server is a data type that exposes automatically generated, unique binary numbers within a database.

• is generally used as a mechanism for version-stamping table rows. 
• the storage size is 8 bytes. 
• the timestamp data type is just an increment number and does not preserve a date or a time. 
• to record a date or time, use a datetime data type.

Example

IF OBJECT_ID(N'tbl1', N'U') IS NOT NULL

       DROP TABLE tbl1;
GO

CREATE TABLE tbl1

(
       id     int,
       code   timestamp
);
GO

INSERT INTO tbl1(id) values  (1)

SELECT
       *
FROM
       tbl1

Result:

id code
1  0x00000000005C0E69