O$: Null Fields

[CLIFFORD ILKAY]

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Christine Penner wrote:
> We use Postgres.

Use the Force, Christine. :) If you want to avoid NULLs, why not set
default values for those columns in which you don't want NULLs? The
following illustrates.

christine=# create table test (id serial primary key, foo varchar not
null default 'BLUB', bar integer default 0);
NOTICE:  CREATE TABLE will create implicit sequence "test_id_seq" for
serial column "test.id"
NOTICE:  CREATE TABLE / PRIMARY KEY will create implicit index
"test_pkey" for table "test"
CREATE TABLE
Time: 36.697 ms
christine=# insert into test default values;
INSERT 12523162 1
Time: 13.921 ms
christine=# insert into test (id, foo, bar) values (default, 'Hello',
default);
INSERT 12523163 1
Time: 9.422 ms
christine=# insert into test (id, foo, bar) values (default, default, 99);
INSERT 12523164 1
Time: 5.471 ms
christine=# select * from test;
 id |  foo  | bar
- ----+-------+-----
  1 | BLUB  |   0
  2 | Hello |   0
  3 | BLUB  |  99
(3 rows)

Time: 0.507 ms

See <http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/sql-insert.html>.
- --
Regards,

Clifford Ilkay
Dinamis
1419-3266 Yonge St.
Toronto, ON
Canada  M4N 3P6

<http://dinamis.com>
+1 416-410-3326
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