Re: Defaulting a column to 'now'

"Ken Winter" <ken@sunward.org> writes:
> How can a column's default be set to 'now', meaning 'now' as of when each
> row is inserted?

You need a function, not a literal constant.  The SQL-spec way isCURRENT_TIMESTAMP
(which is a function, despite the spec's weird idea that it should be
spelled without parentheses); the traditional Postgres way isnow()

Either way only sets an insertion default, though.  If you want to
enforce a correct value on insertion, or change the value when the
row is UPDATEd, you need to use a trigger.
        regards, tom lane