Bug #22104 'DEFAULT(col_name)' function behaviour

• Submitted: 8 Sep 2006 3:04
• Modified: 8 Sep 2006 9:57
• Reporter: Roman Lamotkin
• Status: Won't fix
• Category: MySQL Server
• Severity: S4 (Feature request)
• Version: 5.0.22
• OS: Windows (Win 98 SE)
• CPU Architecture: Any

[8 Sep 2006 3:04] Roman Lamotkin

Description:
I've got a feature request on the 'DEFAULT(col_name)'
function.
I believe its behaviour should be reverted back
to a never-error result, even if a column has no
default value.
I've got a PHP script, which processes many tables
with many fields in batch mode, and sometimes,
if user cleared up a field's value, it has to be
reverted to a default state. Why should I keep
in mind if a default value was specified or not?
Why should I run extra 'DESCRIBE table_name' and
act according to the results?

There is a possible "workaround", though.
Even if a field is declared as 'NOT NULL',
setting it '=NULL' does the task well.
But it's obviously not a good programming style!

How to repeat:
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[8 Sep 2006 9:57] Valeriy Kravchuk

Thank you for a feature request. I do not think that older behaviour of DEFAULT will be reverted for versions 5.x.y though, as it will influence new applications written for 5.0.x, once again.

Using DEFAULT(col) for column with no default value was also a workaround of a kind.