On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 9:09 PM, Tim Uckun <timuckun@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hey all. > > I am using postgres 8.3 with a rails application. I have a column > defined like this. > > ALTER TABLE provisions ADD COLUMN provider_id integer; > ALTER TABLE provisions ALTER COLUMN provider_id SET STORAGE PLAIN; > ALTER TABLE provisions ALTER COLUMN provider_id SET NOT NULL; > ALTER TABLE provisions ALTER COLUMN provider_id SET DEFAULT 0; > > In rails if I don't specify the provider_id the ORM passes a NULL in > the SQL to insert or update and the query blows up. > > In order to get around that problem and removed the NOT NULL > constraint but postgres just puts the NULL value in the column instead > of the default value. > > Is there a way to change this behavior so that an attempt to set the > column to NULL will result in the default value being put in the > field? MySQL implements autoincrements this way. It's complete broken by the SQL spec and no other database I know of does this. You use DEFAULT keywork not NULL in postgresql to get the DEFAULT value. That's how the SQL spec says to do it I believe. There should be some kind of personality setting in rails that tells it you're using pgsql and fixes this, unless you're using some ancient, early mysql only version. -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
