Simple way to default all fields of a table when there are NOT NULL columns that you don't want to set (Rails 2.3.8)

gistfile1.txt

def after_initialize
  if new_record?
    Mergeinfo.columns.select {|c| (! c.null) && (c.name != Mergeinfo.primary_key)}.each do |c|
      default_value = case c.type
                        when :integer
                          0
                        when :string
                          ''
                        when :boolean
                          false
                      end
      self.send("#{c.name}=", default_value) unless self.send(c.name)  #Make sure not to clobber any initialization parameters
    end
  end
end