Hi On 2006-11-05 Bill Guion wrote: > In one of my tables I have a start_date - timestamp (2007-07-04). A > separate column, start_yr_mo, has 200704 (first seven characters of > timestamp without the '-'). Both are entered manually. Can I define > start_yr_mo as a default of, for example, set start_yr_mo = > concat(substr(start_date, 1, 4),substr(start_date,6,2)). Something > like
You can use a "VIEW" for this: CREATE VIEW view_table (start_date, start_yr_mo) AS SELECT start, concat(substr(start_date, 1, 4),substr(start_date,6,2)) FROM orig_table ; mysql> SELECT * FROM view_table; +-----------------+-------------+ | start_date | start_yr_mo | +-----------------+-------------+ | 2007-07-04 | 200707 | +-----------------+-------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) Alternatively one could use a "TRIGGER" that updates the start_yr_mo whenever start_date is modified but I'm unsure if triggers are present before 5.1. Of course the best way could be to drop the start_yr_mo completely and let the application render it. Storing redundant data in a database is seldom a good idea and using SQL for formatting neither. bye, -christian- -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
