default a column with empty string

Question

Is there a way, via a SQL statement, to ensure a column's default value is an empty string '' instead of NULL?

Answer 1

Yes - use a DEFAULT constraint:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `example`.`test`;
CREATE TABLE `example`.`test` (
 `string_test` varchar(45) NOT NULL DEFAULT ''
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

• user114600: Could you use SPACE(0) in a VARCHAR or NVARCHAR column?
• OMG Ponies: @Randolph Potter: SPACE() is a TSQL/SQL Server function - so "No" for MySQL.