MySQL / Null values

[Stevenwulf]

Ok, so I'm having trouble creating a column that does not allow null values. Here is what I'm inserting to create the column:

create table jokes (
ID int not null auto_increment primary key,
JokeText text,
JokeDate date not null);

So all of the colums get created fine excet ID. When I do:

describe table:

ID's default value is "not null" when it should be 0 because I assigned this colmun a not null value. Any ideas what is happening here?

Thanks

[DR_LaRRY_PEpPeR]

i assume you mean it says the default value is NULL, not NOT NULL as you said. this is normal for AUTO_INCREMENT columns. NULL is the value you insert to get it to "auto increment." so that's what MySQL shows as the default. you can create a column like this

id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT

and it will work since it's AUTO_INCREMENT. however, if you have `DEFAULT NULL' on a normal NOT NULL column, it will cause an error.

[MattR]

It is part of the ANSI standard (and Codd's Rules for Relational DBs) that the primary key is always NOT NULL.