By default, a column can hold NULL values. If you do not want a column to have a NULL value, then you need to define such constraint on this column specifying that NULL is now not allowed for that column.
A NULL is not the same as no data, rather, it represents unknown data.
Example:
For example, the following SQL creates a new table called CUSTOMERS and adds five columns, three of which, ID and NAME and AGE, specify not to accept NULLs:
CREATE TABLE CUSTOMERS(
ID INT NOT NULL,
NAME VARCHAR (20) NOT NULL,
AGE INT NOT NULL,
ADDRESS CHAR (25) ,
SALARY DECIMAL (18, 2),
PRIMARY KEY (ID)
);
If CUSTOMERS table has already been created, then to add a NOT NULL constraint to SALARY column in Oracle and MySQL, you would write a statement similar to the following:
ALTER TABLE CUSTOMERS MODIFY SALARY DECIMAL (18, 2) NOT NULL;
A NULL is not the same as no data, rather, it represents unknown data.
Example:
For example, the following SQL creates a new table called CUSTOMERS and adds five columns, three of which, ID and NAME and AGE, specify not to accept NULLs:
CREATE TABLE CUSTOMERS(
ID INT NOT NULL,
NAME VARCHAR (20) NOT NULL,
AGE INT NOT NULL,
ADDRESS CHAR (25) ,
SALARY DECIMAL (18, 2),
PRIMARY KEY (ID)
);
If CUSTOMERS table has already been created, then to add a NOT NULL constraint to SALARY column in Oracle and MySQL, you would write a statement similar to the following:
ALTER TABLE CUSTOMERS MODIFY SALARY DECIMAL (18, 2) NOT NULL;