Variable default values
Variables get a default value when defined.
By default, variables are initialized to a value depending on the variable data type.
For example, when defining an
INTEGER
variable, it gets zero as default value,
while a DECIMAL
variable is set to
NULL
:MAIN
DEFINE v1 INTEGER, v2 DECIMAL(10,2)
DISPLAY v1 -- Shows "0"
DISPLAY NVL(v2,"null") -- Shows "null"
END MAIN
The next table lists default initialization values for each primitive data type:
Data type | Default Value |
---|---|
CHAR |
NULL |
VARCHAR |
NULL |
STRING |
NULL |
BIGINT |
Zero |
INTEGER |
Zero |
SMALLINT |
Zero |
TINYINT |
Zero |
BOOLEAN |
FALSE |
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 |