CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sqlite
Andy Johnson
Andy Johnson

Reputation: 8179

Default column value during and after adding a column

If I specify a default when adding a non-null column to a table ...

ALTER TABLE foo
ADD COLUMN bar INT DEFAULT 42 NOT NULL

... does the bar column continue to have a default value? Or is the default only used while adding the column, to specify values in existing rows?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 2082

Answers (1)

CL.
CL.

Reputation: 180210

The documentation says:

The column-def rule defines the characteristics of the new column.

So the default value applies to the column, not to the operation:

sqlite> CREATE TABLE foo(x);
sqlite> ALTER TABLE foo ADD COLUMN bar INT DEFAULT 42 NOT NULL;
sqlite> INSERT INTO foo(x) VALUES(1);
sqlite> SELECT * FROM foo;
1|42

Upvotes: 1

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