MySQL - set current DATETIME as default

In this article, we would like to show you how to set current DATETIME as default value in DATETIME column in MySQL.

Quick solution:

CREATE TABLE `table_name` (
	`column_name` DATETIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

Practical example

In this example, we will create users table with registration_time column which default value will be the current timestamp.

Query:

CREATE TABLE `users` (
	`id` INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
	`username` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
	`registration_time` DATETIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
	PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
);

Now when we insert some values to the table and don't specify the registration_time value, the column will be filled with current timestamp value.

Query:

INSERT INTO `users`
	(`username`)
VALUES
	('Tom'),
	('Chris'),
	('Jack'),
    ('Kim'),
    ('Marco'),
	('Kate'),
	('Nam');

Result: