Trigger to insert sysdate after an insert in Oracle

Question

I tried using the following but apparently it's invalid SQL:

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER QUESTION_DATE BEFORE INSERT ON QUESTION 
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
INSERT INTO QUESTION(CREATED_TIMESTAMP) 
VALUES (SYSDATE);
END;

The Question table looks like this so far:

CREATE TABLE QUESTION
(   
    QUESTION_ID             INTEGER not null,
    LATEST_QUESTION         INTEGER not null,
    CREATED_USER_ID         INTEGER not null,
    CREATED_TIMESTAMP       TIMESTAMP not null,     
    CONSTRAINT PK_QUESTION  PRIMARY KEY (QUESTION_ID)
);

CREATE SEQUENCE QUESTION_ID_SEQ INCREMENT BY 1 START WITH 1 NOCYCLE NOCACHE NOORDER;

CREATE TRIGGER QUESTION_INSERT BEFORE INSERT ON QUESTION 
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
SELECT QUESTION_ID_SEQ.nextval
INTO :new.QUESTION_ID
FROM dual;
END;

I'm using Toad for Oracle V9.0.1.8 if that's relevant

Answer 1

Dont use a trigger to set a default value in Oracle. Instead, use "DEFAULT" on the column. Here is an exmple column

CREATED_TIMESTAMP  TIMESTAMP  DEFAULT SYSDATE  NOT NULL,