 <p>Even better, use <a href="http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/data-type-defaults.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DEFAULT</a> instead of NULL. You want to store the default value, not a NULL that might trigger a default value.</p> <p>But you'd better name all columns, with a piece of SQL you can create all the INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE's you need. Just check the <a href="http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/columns-table.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">information_schema</a> and construct the queries you need. There is no need to do it all by hand, SQL can help you out.</p>