The process you describe really is not that difficult. My general method
is:
Rename existing column
Create new column
Repopulate from existing column
Drop existing column
Re-Add constraints/indexes (honestly I don't use constraints that much).
Jon
On Thu, 12 Jun 2003, Sven Koehler wrote:
> Hi,
>
> one of the biggest disease of PostGreSQL is, that i can't change the
> definition of a column.
>
> In order to do that, i'd have to drop any keys, drop the column and
> create a new one with all indexes etc.
>
> Are there any plans to overcome that problem?
> Even simple changes like varchar(20) to varchar(200) are not allowed.
>
> I asked this question about 2 years ago, and there were only some guys,
> that told me that i wouldn't need to change my DB if i'd plan it well.
>
> So my DB is planned well, but i have to change it every now and than
> because i must implement the changes that my client demands me to do,
> and have some extra work that nobody will pay me for, if there's no way
> to change a column.
>
> This is the only missing feature, that prevent me to use this DBMS - i'd
> love to, because it's an ORDBMS and that's what i'd have needed sometimes.
>
>
>
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