In SQLAlchemy, how do I create a 'MySQL date' column?

Question

class Posts(Base):
    __tablename__ = 'posts_posts'
    id = Column(Integer, primary_key = True)
    user_id = Column(Integer, nullable=False)
    body = Column(Text, nullable=True)

    created_at = Column(Date) << is this right?
    updated_at = Column(Date) ??

I would also like the created_at column to automatically set the date when it's created. And also, the updated_at column to set the date anytime this row is changed.

Answer 1

You can provide default and onupdate parameters to Column:

def _get_date():
    return datetime.datetime.now()

class Posts(Base):
    #...
    created_at = Column(Date, default=_get_date)
    updated_at = Column(Date, onupdate=_get_date)

See Column documentation for more info on this one.