Setting a field to default if blank value

If you mean blank like '', then if the field is a string, it would be normal behavior as is.

If it's any other type of field, set a default value and it will take the place of a non existent value.

Robert Fitzpatrick wrote:

Robert Fitzpatrick wrote:

Looking for the best way of handling this, would like to do

it in the

database and not in my apps. I set a field to 'Not Null', but if a
blank value comes in, the field will accept it as just

that, a blank

string. How can avoid this using a trigger or function? I thought
about a function that would check the field and then place

a trigger,

but that gets to be a lot of functions and triggers for different
fields. Is there a way to pass a field name to the function? (in
plpgsql)

Or what is the best way to handle this for many different fields in
many tables?

If you mean blank like '', then if the field is a string, it
would be normal behavior as is.

Yes, they are strings (varchar). Know the best way to handle it?

--
Robert

just put '' in the insert statement, it will be a blank field, no big deal.

Robert Fitzpatrick wrote:

On Mon, 28 Apr 2003, Robert Fitzpatrick wrote:

Robert Fitzpatrick wrote:

Looking for the best way of handling this, would like to do

it in the

database and not in my apps. I set a field to 'Not Null', but if a
blank value comes in, the field will accept it as just

that, a blank

string. How can avoid this using a trigger or function? I thought
about a function that would check the field and then place

a trigger,

but that gets to be a lot of functions and triggers for different
fields. Is there a way to pass a field name to the function? (in
plpgsql)

Or what is the best way to handle this for many different fields in
many tables?

If you mean blank like '', then if the field is a string, it
would be normal behavior as is.

Yes, they are strings (varchar). Know the best way to handle it?

Can a plpgsql function "walk" the fields of an insert / update and replace
every '' with the keyword DEFAULT? I would think that would be the
answer. You'd need to be in 7.3 for DEFAULT to work. In 7.2 I'm not sure
how you'd set a default on '' though.

did you try what I gave you? It should have puked when you tried to insert a blank field.

Robert Fitzpatrick wrote:

Robert,

I use a default value on columns that I define as not null and want particular data to be inserted if no value is supplied. After you create your table a simple alter statement is all you need:
alter table table_name alter column column_name set default ' ';

Hope this helps

Karen Grose
Vigilos Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Fitzpatrick [mailto:robert@webtent.com]
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 11:09 AM
To: gearond@cvc.net
Cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Setting a field to default if blank value

Robert Fitzpatrick wrote:

Looking for the best way of handling this, would like to do

it in the

database and not in my apps. I set a field to 'Not Null', but if a
blank value comes in, the field will accept it as just

that, a blank

string. How can avoid this using a trigger or function? I thought
about a function that would check the field and then place

a trigger,

but that gets to be a lot of functions and triggers for different
fields. Is there a way to pass a field name to the function? (in
plpgsql)

Or what is the best way to handle this for many different fields in
many tables?

If you mean blank like '', then if the field is a string, it
would be normal behavior as is.

Yes, they are strings (varchar). Know the best way to handle it?

--
Robert

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