Default Values in Drizzle ORM Schema

Default Values in Drizzle

SQL DEFAULT clauses are converted to Drizzle's .default() chain method. Drizzle supports both static TypeScript values and dynamic SQL expressions as defaults.

Static Defaults

Simple values like numbers, strings, and booleans use JavaScript literals:

CREATE TABLE settings (
  id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
  theme VARCHAR(20) DEFAULT 'dark',
  font_size INTEGER DEFAULT 14,
  notifications BOOLEAN DEFAULT TRUE,
  max_retries INTEGER DEFAULT 3
);

export const settings = pgTable("settings", {
  id: serial("id").primaryKey(),
  theme: varchar("theme", { length: 20 }).default("dark"),
  fontSize: integer("font_size").default(14),
  notifications: boolean("notifications").default(true),
  maxRetries: integer("max_retries").default(3),
});

SQL Expression Defaults

Dynamic defaults that involve database functions use the sql template tag:

CREATE TABLE users (
  id UUID DEFAULT gen_random_uuid() PRIMARY KEY,
  created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  updated_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

import { pgTable, timestamp, uuid } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";
import { sql } from "drizzle-orm";

export const users = pgTable("users", {
  id: uuid("id").default(sql`gen_random_uuid()`).primaryKey(),
  createdAt: timestamp("created_at").default(sql`CURRENT_TIMESTAMP`),
  updatedAt: timestamp("updated_at").default(sql`CURRENT_TIMESTAMP`),
});

Common Default Mappings

SQL Default	Drizzle Default
DEFAULT 0	.default(0)
DEFAULT ''	.default("")
DEFAULT TRUE	.default(true)
DEFAULT FALSE	.default(false)
DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP	.default(sql\CURRENT_TIMESTAMP`)`
DEFAULT NOW()	.default(sql\CURRENT_TIMESTAMP`)`
DEFAULT gen_random_uuid()	.default(sql\gen_random_uuid()`)`
DEFAULT uuid()	.default(sql\(UUID())`)`

Drizzle's .$defaultFn()

For application-level defaults (not database-level), Drizzle provides .$defaultFn():

import { v4 as uuidv4 } from "uuid";

export const users = pgTable("users", {
  id: text("id").$defaultFn(() => uuidv4()).primaryKey(),
});

This generates the default in your application code rather than in the database. The SQL converter generates database-level .default() calls since it is converting from SQL defaults.

JSON Defaults

For JSON columns with object defaults:

metadata: jsonb("metadata").notNull().default({}),
tags: json("tags").notNull().default([]),

Drizzle serializes JavaScript objects to JSON when sending them to the database.