SQL/MP Reference Manual

HP NonStop SQL/MP Reference Manual—523352-013

D-26

DEFAULT Clause

The DEFAULT clause specifies a default value for a column (a value to use as the

value of the column when a row is inserted without one). You can specify a default

value for any column you define with CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE.

The default is NULL.

literal

is a literal of a data type compatible with the data type defined for the associated

column.

For a character column, literal must be a string literal of no more than eight

bytes or the length of the column, whichever is less. If the character column is

associated with a double-byte character set, literal must contain an even

number of bytes. SQL pads literal with spaces (HEX 20) when inserting the

value into longer character fields. (SQL always uses HEX 20 for padding, whether

a single-byte or double-byte character set is associated with the expression.)

For a numeric column, literal must be a numeric literal that does not exceed

the defined length of the column. The number of digits to the right of the decimal

point must not exceed the scale of the column and the number of digits to the left

of the decimal point must not exceed the number in the length (or length minus

scale, if you specified scale for the column).

For a date-time column, literal must be a date-time literal with a precision that

matches the precision of the column.

For an INTERVAL column, literal must be an INTERVAL literal that has the

range of INTERVAL fields defined for the column.

CURRENT

(date-time columns only) specifies that the default value for the column is the

appropriate portion of the Guardian timestamp at the time of the operation that

assigns a value to the column.

If more than one date-time column is assigned a CURRENT default value in the

same operation, SQL uses the same timestamp as the basis of all CURRENT

values assigned in the operation, regardless of how long the operation takes.

{ literal }

DEFAULT { CURRENT }

{ SYSTEM }

{ NULL }