How do I modify a datatype in 7.2.15

[newbiepg]

I have a column which is registered as integer I would like to change it to varchar
Is this possible through sql?

 

[totti24]

i don think so. coz i've tried it before. i read a forum saying that it cant be change. don know whether true or not. maybe u can copy out ur data to a file and re-create the table. after re-creating the table, copy back the data from the file into ur new table. it works for me. hope to hear some other suggestions. cheerss...

 

[rosenk]

Using PostgreSQL 7.3.1 you could do something like:

[tt]ALTER TABLE <table> RENAME COLUMN <col> TO tempcol;
ALTER TABLE <table> ADD COLUMN <col> VARCHAR(32);
UPDATE <table> SET <col>=tempcol;
ALTER TABLE <table> DROP COLUMN tempcol;[/tt]

 

[rosenk]

In 7.2, by the way, you could do everything up to the [tt]DROP COLUMN[/tt]. You would not be able to drop the renamed column from the database without creating a new table and copying the data from one to the other.