Thread: Change column data type

On Tuesday 02 September 2003 10:50, Senthil Kumar S wrote:
> Dear Friends,
>
> Using Postgres 7.3.4 over the linux server 7.3.
>
> Is it possible to alter/change the data type of a existing table's column,
> with out dropping and recreating a column of same name.
>
> Thanks for ur knowledge sharing.

If you mean changing a varchar to a date or int4 to text, then no. If you want 
to change the size of a varchar field, people seem to have done that in the 
past (check the archives for details).

Otherwise, you'll have to wrap the drop/recreate in a transaction along with 
whatever supporting updates you need.
--  Richard Huxton Archonet Ltd