When you create a Sequelize model, you can add the default value for your model by adding the defaultValue option to the column(s) definition.
The defaultValue option will be used by Sequelize to define default value(s) for your SQL column(s) when you create a table using Sequelize.
For example, when you sync() the following Sequelize model:
const User = sequelize.define("User", {
firstName: {
type: Sequelize.STRING,
},
lastName: {
type: Sequelize.STRING,
defaultValue: "Doe",
},
},
{
timestamps: false,
});
User.sync();
Then the Users table will be created in your database with the following definition. Notice how the default value of the lastName column is Doe:
+-----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id | int | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |
| firstName | varchar(255) | YES | | NULL | |
| lastName | varchar(255) | YES | | Doe | |
+-----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
The same goes when you create a table using Sequelize migrations. You can add the column’s default value as follows:
"use strict";
module.exports = {
up: async (queryInterface, Sequelize) => {
await queryInterface.createTable("Users", {
id: {
allowNull: false,
autoIncrement: true,
primaryKey: true,
type: Sequelize.INTEGER,
},
firstName: {
type: Sequelize.STRING,
},
lastName: {
type: Sequelize.STRING,
defaultValue: "Doe",
},
createdAt: {
allowNull: false,
type: Sequelize.DATE,
},
updatedAt: {
allowNull: false,
type: Sequelize.DATE,
},
});
},
down: async (queryInterface, Sequelize) => {
await queryInterface.dropTable("Users");
},
};
Sequelize defaultValue option behavior
Additionally, the defaultValue option will still take effect even when your table column has NULL as its default value.
For example, suppose you have a MySQL table named Users with the following structure:
+-----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id | int | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |
| firstName | varchar(255) | YES | | NULL | |
| lastName | varchar(255) | YES | | NULL | |
+-----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
In the description above, notice how the lastName column of the Users table defaults to NULL value.
Next, you create a Sequelize model as follows:
const User = sequelize.define("User", {
firstName: {
type: Sequelize.STRING,
},
lastName: {
type: Sequelize.STRING,
defaultValue: "Doe",
},
},
{
timestamps: false,
});
With the defaultValue option added to the lastName column, Sequelize will use that value when you insert a new row with the create() method:
await User.create({
firstName: "Nathan",
});
The above code will insert a row into your table as shown below:
+----+-----------+----------+
| id | firstName | lastName |
+----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Nathan | Doe |
+----+-----------+----------+
As you can see, even when the MySQL column definition defaults to NULL, the defaultValue option added to the Sequelize model is still taken into account.
The defaultValue option also takes priority over the default value defined in your MySQL table.
In the following example, the Sequelize model defines the lastName column defaultValue as Sebhastian:
const User = sequelize.define(
"User",
{
firstName: {
type: Sequelize.STRING,
},
lastName: {
type: Sequelize.STRING,
defaultValue: "Sebhastian",
},
},
{
timestamps: false,
}
);
Even when the MySQL table has the lastName column that defaults to Doe:
+-----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id | int | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |
| firstName | varchar(255) | YES | | NULL | |
| lastName | varchar(255) | YES | | Doe | |
+-----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
In the case above, Sebhastian will be used as the default value when you insert a new row instead of Doe.
Now you’ve learned how to add default values to Sequelize models and migrations. Nice work! 👍