Question

I have a column EntryDate in a SQL Server database.

How can I set a NULL value to fill it with today’s date (server time) if value was not provided in a query?

Answer 1

Disallow Nulls on the column and set a default on the column of getdate()

/*Deal with any existing NULLs*/
UPDATE YourTable SET EntryDate=GETDATE() WHERE EntryDate IS NULL

/*Disallow NULLs*/
ALTER TABLE YourTable ALTER COLUMN EntryDate DATE NOT NULL

/*Add default constraint*/
ALTER TABLE YourTable ADD CONSTRAINT
    DF_YourTable_EntryDate DEFAULT GETDATE() FOR EntryDate