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Is there a phrase in common use for a counter that is incremented every time the state of an object changes?
It's not quite a timestamp and it's not quite a revision but maybe there is a common name for this.
The usage is to provide loosely coupled portions of code with a simple way to quickly check if a large object has changed when callbacks are undesirable. The possibility that the object changed state and then changed state back to its previous state is not harmful and it's also unlikely.
It is called a logical clock.
I guess it is like a version but the connotation is off. Versions suggests that info about previous versions is available and each version builds upon the last. What I had in mind is simply a signal of any change at all.
HTTP has something like this: a value that changes when the state of an object changes but it's not a counter. It's called "ETag" or "Entity Tag", see the Wikipedia article.
If I had something similar in my system, I'd certainly prefer alluding to or borrowing that name over coming up with my own.
