CURRENT_DATE/CURDATE() not working as default DATE value

Question

Pretty straight forward question here, I think this should work but it doesn't. Why doesn't it?

CREATE TABLE INVOICE(
   INVOICEDATE DATE NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_DATE
)

Answer 1

It doesn't work because it's not supported

The DEFAULT clause specifies a default value for a column. With one exception, the default value must be a constant; it cannot be a function or an expression. This means, for example, that you cannot set the default for a date column to be the value of a function such as NOW() or CURRENT_DATE. The exception is that you can specify CURRENT_TIMESTAMP as the default for a TIMESTAMP column

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/create-table.html

Answer 2

declare your date column as NOT NULL, but without a default. Then add this trigger:

USE `ddb`;
DELIMITER $$
CREATE TRIGGER `default_date` BEFORE INSERT ON `dtable` FOR EACH ROW
if ( isnull(new.query_date) ) then
 set new.query_date=curdate();
end if;
$$
delimiter ;

Answer 3

create table the_easy_way(
  capture_ts DATETIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  capture_dt DATE AS (DATE(capture_ts))
)

(MySQL 5.7)

Answer 4

As the other answer correctly notes, you cannot use dynamic functions as a default value. You could use TIMESTAMP with the CURRENT_TIMESTAMP attribute, but this is not always possible, for example if you want to keep both a creation and updated timestamp, and you'd need the only allowed TIMESTAMP column for the second.

In this case, use a trigger instead.

Answer 5

----- 2016-07-04 MariaDB 10.2.1 -- Release Note -- -----

Support for DEFAULT with expressions (MDEV-10134).

----- 2018-10-22 8.0.13 General Availability -- -- -----

MySQL now supports use of expressions as default values in data type specifications. This includes the use of expressions as default values for the BLOB, TEXT, GEOMETRY, and JSON data types, which previously could not be assigned default values at all. For details, see Data Type Default Values.

Answer 6

According to this documentation, starting in MySQL 8.0.13, you will be able to specify:

CREATE TABLE INVOICE(
    INVOICEDATE DATE DEFAULT (CURRENT_DATE)
)

Unfortunately, as of today, that version is not yet released. You can check here for the latest updates.