Question

I have some columns that may contain data that is if the user wants to provide it.

Example | Email | First Name | Last Name |

Email – Required so column is set to NOT NULL – Default: None

First Name – Not Required so column set to NULL – Default: NULL

Last Name – Not Required so column set to NULL – Default: NULL

In phpmyadmin when creating/editing a column; it has an option saying Default: with a drop down showing None | As Defined | NULL | Current Timestamp

Because First Name | Last Name is optional and not required should I choose default NULL or maybe NONE?

Which is best and why please?

I know there are many discussions on this already but I could not find any that answered my question; they was more in regards to allowing NULL or NOT NULL, my question is about default value.

Answer 1

You should set them to Default:Null as if the user doesn’t provide any info for that fields, they should be null obviously.