auto fill date column

[emretemp]

hi, i wanna know if this is possible or not.

lets assume that i ve a "date" column, like this:
CREATE TABLE mytable (
id SMALLINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT ,
mydate DATE NOT NULL
);

each time I want to insert a row to this table, i have use NOW() statement, like this:

mysql_query("INSERT INTO mytable (id, mydate) values ('', NOW())");

is there a way to set mydate column so that i wont need to type NOW() in mysql_query? like timestamp colums which puts the current timestamp automatically.

i tried smt like this
CREATE TABLE mytable (
id SMALLINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT ,
mydate DATE DEFAULT 'CURRENT_DATE()' NOT NULL
);

but couldnt make it work.

[devinemke]

if you use the TIMESTAMP column type then the date will be automatically set to the current time on each INSERT/UPDATE

[emretemp]

yup u r right, but i wanna do the same with the date column type. trying to give now() command as a default value to the column does not work. lookinf for a workin alternative.