In this blog post, we’ll look at the MariaDB 10.2 CHECK and DEFAULT clauses.

MariaDB 10.2 includes some long-awaited features. In this blog, we are going to discuss the improvements to some table definitions: the DEFAULT clause and the CHECK constraints. These clauses describe columns default values and rules for data validation.

Note that MariaDB 10.2 is still in alpha stage. This article describes the current state of these features, which could change before MariaDB 10.2 becomes GA.

The DEFAULT clause

The DEFAULT clause has always been supported in MariaDB/MySQL, but traditionally it only accepted literal values (like “hello world” or “2”). MariaDB 10.2 removes this limitation, so DEFAULT can now accept most SQL expressions. For example:

• fiscal_year …

Background Knowledge

I’m trying to determine the difference in minutes between two timestamps. I’m using Pear::Date to do this. The issue comes into play when I noticed that the wrong timezone was being used by Pear::Date, UTC. If I do not use Pear::Date the timezone is set correctly.

I have tried using date_default_timezone_set() and it does set the timezone back, however I feel this shouldn’t be necessary as the default timezone should be used. I have been using date_default_timezone_get() to determine what timezone is being used.

It’s my understanding that Pear::Date uses UTC when it is unable to determine the default timezone. As far as I know I have the default timezone set correctly and with a …