Data Engineering Associate with Databricks Practice Exam

Which SQL function is utilized to generate the current timestamp?

1. Input_file_name()

2. Current_timestamp()

3. Filter()

4. Collect_set()

The correct answer is: Current_timestamp()

The function used to generate the current timestamp in SQL is the one that retrieves the system's current date and time. This function is essential for time-sensitive operations, wherenever you need to log or track the timing of events within a database. The correct function, Current_timestamp(), returns the current date and time in the format of a timestamp, which is useful for inserting time data into tables, performing time-based comparisons, and more. It provides a precise measure of when a particular operation occurs, which can be crucial in applications such as logging, analytics, and transaction management. The other options serve different functions: Input_file_name() retrieves the name of the file being read in a data processing job, Filter() is used to filter records from a dataset based on given criteria, and Collect_set() aggregates unique values from a dataset into a set. Therefore, none of these options fulfill the requirement of generating the current timestamp as effectively as Current_timestamp() does.