How do you set a default value for a MySQL Datetime column?

Question

How do you set a default value for a MySQL Datetime column?

In SQL Server it\'s getdate(). What is the equivalant for MySQL? I\'m using MySQL 5.x if tha

Answer 1

Take for instance If I had a table named 'site' with a created_at and an update_at column that were both DATETIME and need the default value of now, I could execute the following sql to achieve this.

ALTER TABLE `site` CHANGE `created_at` `created_at` TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;

ALTER TABLE `site` CHANGE `created_at` `created_at` DATETIME  NULL DEFAULT NULL;

ALTER TABLE `site` CHANGE `updated_at` `updated_at` TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;

ALTER TABLE `site` CHANGE `updated_at` `updated_at` DATETIME NULL DEFAULT  NULL;

The sequence of statements is important because a table can not have two columns of type TIMESTAMP with default values of CUREENT TIMESTAMP