default value of the foreign key field in a child table

There are two tables, parent and child table.

Foreign key field of the child table is not a required field. If the
data is submitted w/o a value into the foreign key field, what should
I make it as a default value? Should it be "null"?reneeccwest@.hotmail.com (reneeccwest) wrote in message news:<9f9d6d21.0310081243.7e44194d@.posting.google.com>...
> There are two tables, parent and child table.
> Foreign key field of the child table is not a required field. If the
> data is submitted w/o a value into the foreign key field, what should
> I make it as a default value? Should it be "null"?

If the column is NULLable, then NULL should be acceptable; if you need
to enforce a default value, that suggests you should probably have a
NOT NULL column with a DEFAULT constraint. So it depends on your data
model and business rules.

Simon|||Hi,

it MUST be NULL, otherwise you get a constraint violation; you can
define a default value but it have to be inserted on the master table.

Bye.

reneeccwest@.hotmail.com (reneeccwest) wrote in message news:<9f9d6d21.0310081243.7e44194d@.posting.google.com>...
> There are two tables, parent and child table.
> Foreign key field of the child table is not a required field. If the
> data is submitted w/o a value into the foreign key field, what should
> I make it as a default value? Should it be "null"?