How to set a Postgresql default value datestamp like 'YYYYMM'?

Question

As title, how can I set a table\'s column to have the default value the current year and month, in format \'YYYYMM\', like 200905 for today?

Answer 1

Right. Better to use a function:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION yyyymm() RETURNS text
    LANGUAGE 'plpgsql' AS $$
DECLARE
    retval text;
    m integer;
BEGIN
    retval := EXTRACT(year from current_timestamp);
    m := EXTRACT(month from current_timestamp);
    IF m < 10 THEN retval := retval || '0'; END IF;
    RETURN retval || m;
END $$;

SELECT yyyymm();

DROP TABLE foo;
CREATE TABLE foo (
    key             int PRIMARY KEY,
    colname text DEFAULT yyyymm()
    );
INSERT INTO foo (key) VALUES (0);
SELECT * FROM FOO;

This gives me

 key | colname 
-----+---------
   0 | 200905

Make sure you run createlang plpgsql from the Unix command line, if necessary.