Re: NULL becomes default

Hi, Julian,

Julian Scarfe wrote:
> A surrogate key has been introduced on a table with modifiers:
>
> Column | Type | Modifiers
> -------------+-----------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------
>
> new_id | integer | not null default
> nextval(('some_id_seq'::text)::regclass)
>
> However, some legacy software inserts into the table by first getting
> column names and then composing an INSERT for all the columns, filling
> in any undefined values with NULLs.
>
> Thus when it attempts to insert a row I get a:
>
> ERROR: null value in column "new_id" violates not-null constraint
>
> Thus I would like NULLs in such INSERTs to be treated as DEFAULT rather
> than violating the constraint. Is there an easy way to do that at the
> database level?

Did you try a "before insert" trigger that checks new_id for null
values, and replaces it with nextval()?

Markus

--
Markus Schaber | Logical Tracking&Tracing International AG
Dipl. Inf. | Software Development GIS

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