Why there can be only one TIMESTAMP column with CURRENT_TIMESTAMP in DEFAULT clause?

Question

Why there can be only one TIMESTAMP column with CURRENT_TIMESTAMP in DEFAULT or ON UPDATE clause?

CREATE TABLE `foo` (
  `ProductID` INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
  `AddedDate` TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  `UpdatedDate` TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
) ENGINE=INNODB;

The error that results:

Error Code : 1293

Incorrect table definition; there can be only one TIMESTAMP column with CURRENT_TIMESTAMP in DEFAULT or ON UPDATE clause

Answer 1

This limitation, which was only due to historical, code legacy reasons, has been lifted in recent versions of MySQL:

Changes in MySQL 5.6.5 (2012-04-10, Milestone 8)

Previously, at most one TIMESTAMP column per table could be automatically initialized or updated to the current date and time. This restriction has been lifted. Any TIMESTAMP column definition can have any combination of DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP and ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP clauses. In addition, these clauses now can be used with DATETIME column definitions. For more information, see Automatic Initialization and Updating for TIMESTAMP and DATETIME.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/relnotes/mysql/5.6/en/news-5-6-5.html