This MySQL table had me perplexed for a moment: mysql> desc quux; +---------------------------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +---------------------------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | foobar | int(11) | NO | | NULL | | (...) mysql> show create table quux; (...) `foobar` int(11) NOT NULL, (...) Since the `foobar` field was never created with a DEFAULT clause, it gets automatically assigned DEFAULT NULL. However, at a first sight this looks like contradicting the fact that it was also defined as NOT NULL. Then I realized that this schema aims to force to insert a value (and a non-NULL one) in `foobar` when adding a new record. Still, it looks a bit quirky to me. Is this acceptable, or an error of the DBA that should have defined a proper DEFAULT value for that field? Are there better ways to do so?