How do you find the last modified row in SQL Server?

 In SQL Server, to find the last modified row in a table, you typically need to have a column that records when the row was last updated, such as a LastModified column or a timestamp column. If this type of column exists, you can easily retrieve the last modified row by sorting the table in descending order by the modification timestamp and limiting the result to the top row.

Here's how you can approach it:

Scenario 1: Using a LastModified Column

If your table has a LastModified column that stores the timestamp of when each row was last updated, you can use the following query:

SELECT TOP 1 *
FROM YourTable
ORDER BY LastModified DESC;

• YourTable is the name of your table.
• LastModified is the column that records the last modification timestamp.

This query will return the row that was last modified, based on the most recent value in the LastModified column.

Scenario 2: Using a timestamp or rowversion Column

If your table uses a timestamp or rowversion column (which automatically generates a unique binary value every time a row is modified), you can use that column to identify the last modified row.

SELECT TOP 1 *
FROM YourTable
ORDER BY TimestampColumn DESC;

• TimestampColumn is the name of the column of type timestamp or rowversion.

Scenario 3: Using sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats or sys.tables

If there is no explicit LastModified or timestamp column, and you want to determine the most recently modified row from a broader perspective (e.g., based on when the table itself was last updated), you can query system views such as sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats or sys.tables, but this won't give you row-level modifications.

Example:

SELECT name, modify_date
FROM sys.tables
WHERE name = 'YourTable';

This query will return the last time the table itself was modified (e.g., index rebuilds, DDL operations).

However, for row-level tracking, a custom column like LastModified is usually required.