I want to add a date column to a table. I'd like the default date value in this column to be the same as the date in another date column in the same table. How do I do that?

You can't.

A DEFAULT constraint may only be a constant expression or a system function, such as getdate().

You could do something like interpret a NULL value in the column to mean that the value should be taken as the value in another column, and use the COALESCE function in your queries as, e.g.:

   SELECT COALESCE(yourcolumn,theothercolumn) FROM yourtable ...

Coalesce returns the first non null value in its expression list, so this would return the value of 'yourcolumn' if it has one, otherwise it returns the value of 'someothercolumn'.

Jeff Mason
Custom Apps, Inc.
www.custom-apps.com

thanks a lot.