Re: changing the size of a column without losing data

From:               "Mark Seftel" <mark@trustemail.com>
To:                 <pgsql-novice@postgresql.org>
Subject:            [NOVICE] changing the size of a column without losing data
Date sent:          Thu, 22 Aug 2002 19:43:57 +0200

Mark

Alter colummn isn't implemented beyond renaming as far as I know,

I do it by brute force, eg:

Begin;
ALTER TABLE table RENAME TO table2;

DROP INDEX table_pkey;

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE tabletemp() INHERITS (table2);

INSERT INTO tabletemp SELECT * FROM table2;

CREATE TABLE table(
field varchar(150) PRIMARY KEY);


INSERT INTO table SELECT * FROM tabletemp;

DROP table2;

DROP tabletemp;

End;

I always do these things in a transaction (wonderful things) as I
often make typo's

Hope this helps

Paul Butler


> hi,
>
> How would i change a field which is currently char100 to char50?
>
> have tried:
> ALTER TABLE outlets MODIFY description varchar(50);
>
> but get error:
> parser: parse error at or near "modify"
>
> what is the correct command.
>
> Thx
>
> Mark
>
>
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