Re: Is this safe to perform on PostgreSQL 8.3.7 -> Resize a column in a PostgreSQL table without changing data

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 7:50 AM, Reid Thompson <reid.thompson@ateb.com> wrote:
> Note that I man­u­ally added the 4 to the desired size of 35..again, for
> some legacy rea­sons inside PG. Done. That's it. Should we check?
>
> d TABLE1
>
> TABLE "public.TABLE1"
> COLUMN  |  TYPE                 | Modifiers
> --------+-----------------------+-----------
> COL1    | CHARACTER VARYING(35) |
>
> Such a sim­ple yet effec­tive trick. Of course it'd be nicer if this is
> some­how included in a more proper way in the data­base, but this does the
> job.

Note that this method works around all the safe guards etc that make
sure your data is safe and coherent.  It works, as long as you're
careful what you're doing.

the real solution, to me, is to stop using varchar limits unless
there's a real reason for them.  I.e. arbitrary limits on things like
name lengths make no sense in the db.