At 07:48 AM 26/03/2009, you wrote:

>Is there a TimeStamp(3) equivalent for 'now' >

'NOW' and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP are timestamp(3) by default in Fb 2 and above. To make them otherwise, you would cast them.

>Since TimeStamp reflects the time a procedure starts and
>'now' is the 'cpu time ??'

Not quite. CURRENT_TIMESTAMP is the time a DML statement starts executing, so it resets to the latest time each time a DML statement request is freshly executed. Thus, if your SP includes a statement
update something
set afield = something,
timefield = current_timestamp

then all affected rows will have the same time stamp.

A statement like
for .....
do begin
if (whatever) then
update something
set afield = :somevariable,
timefield = current_timestamp
where (condition to pin a single row) ;
end

... then the timestamp potentially changes at each turn of the loop.

The time literal 'NOW' records exact moment in time under all conditions, so

update something
set afield = something,
timefield = cast ('NOW' as timestamp)

potentially records a progressively later timestamp for each row written to.

./heLen