Doctrine 2.1 - datetime column default value

You map your property as DateTime type then set the value in the constructor using a new DateTime instance:

/**
 * @Entity
 * @Table(name="...")
 */
class MyEntity
{
    /** @Column(type="datetime") */
    protected $registration_date;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->registration_date = new DateTime(); 
    }
}

This works as the constructor of a persisted class is not called upon hydration.

You can also use lifecycle callbacks if you want to be very precise:

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

/**
 * @ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks
 * ...
 */
class MyEntity
{
    /**
     * @ORM\PrePersist
     */
    public function onPrePersistSetRegistrationDate()
    {
        $this->registration_date = new \DateTime();
    }
}

For default value CURRENT_TIMESTAMP:

     @ORM\Column(name="created_at", type="datetime", options={"default": "CURRENT_TIMESTAMP"})

Or for older Symfony versions:

     @ORM\Column(name="created_at", type="datetime", options={"default": 0})

Worked for me... However this works only with MySQL.

I think, the best way to accomplish autofill for datetime is to make like that:

* @ORM\Column(type="datetime", options={"default"="CURRENT_TIMESTAMP"})

Putting logic to constructor isn't right solution, because setting default values are SQL client responsibility. If you decide no longer use ORM - you will lost business logic. Plus, if using constructor you won't be able to add default timestamps to datetime attributes for existing rows.