MySQL DATE syntax FAQ: How do I set a MySQL DATE field to default to "now", i.e., the current time?
Setting the date to "now"
Unfortunately you can't default a MySQL DATE field to "now", but you can get the "now" behavior with a MySQL TIMESTAMP field. The syntax to create a MySQL TIMESTAMP "now" field is:
last_changed timestamp not null default now(),
where last_changed is the name of my field, timestamp is the type of field, it can't be null, and the date/time default is now().
Now when you do a MySQL INSERT, just skip this field in your MySQL INSERT statement, and this field will default to the current date/time.
Example
To be clear about how this works, here's a complete example of how to default a MySQL timestamp field to "now":
mysql> create table test (foo int, ts timestamp default now()); Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.20 sec) mysql> desc test; +-------+-----------+------+-----+-------------------+-------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +-------+-----------+------+-----+-------------------+-------+ | foo | int(11) | YES | | NULL | | | ts | timestamp | NO | | CURRENT_TIMESTAMP | | +-------+-----------+------+-----+-------------------+-------+ 2 rows in set (0.02 sec) mysql> insert into test (foo) values(1); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.03 sec) mysql> select * from test; +------+---------------------+ | foo | ts | +------+---------------------+ | 1 | 2010-12-15 14:20:59 | +------+---------------------+ 1 row in set (0.02 sec)
Summary
I hope this MySQL timestamp example has been helpful. As usual, if you have any questions or comments, just leave a note below.