Initialization values

Variables are initialized differently depending on the data type.

When a variable is defined, it is automatically initialized by the runtime system to a default value. The default value the variable is assigned with depends on the data type.

Table 1. data type specific default values for variables
Data type	Default Value
`CHAR`	NULL
`VARCHAR`	NULL
`STRING`	NULL
`INTEGER`	Zero
`SMALLINT`	Zero
`FLOAT`	Zero
`SMALLFLOAT`	Zero
`DECIMAL`	NULL
`MONEY`	NULL
`DATE`	1899-12-31 (= Zero in number of days)
`DATETIME`	NULL
`INTERVAL`	NULL
`TEXT`	NULL, must use `LOCATE`
`BYTE`	NULL, must use `LOCATE`