Setting a DEFAULT when NULL is inserted

From: Jonathan Moules <jonathan-lists(at)lightpear(dot)com>
To: <pgsql-novice(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Setting a DEFAULT when NULL is inserted
Date: 2017-07-12 10:25:06
Message-ID: 15d3653c208.fdb0a636212344.106420915297522733@lightpear.com
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Hi List,
I want a column to get a default value of now() (the timestamp) when a row is inserted. But it's not working because the application that's doing the insertion appears to be putting a null value in, and DEFAULT isn't converting this to now().

Example:
I have a table with a simple definition:

CREATE TABLE my_table
(
id integer,
insertion_datetime timestamp DEFAULT now()
);

If I do:
insert into my_table (id) values (1);

Then the insertion_datetime gets a value of now() correctly.

But if I do this:
insert into my_table (id, insertion_datetime) values (1, null);

Then the insertion_datetime gets a value of NULL rather than the desired now().

I can see why this happens (I have explicitly told it to put NULL in there after all), but it's not the desired behaviour. I can't change the application, so how do I get any inserted NULL values to become the DEFAULT now()? Am I going to need to use a trigger?

Thanks,
Jonathan

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