Adding alter column syntax into postgres

Started by JwexlerAt MailDotComover 16 years ago4 messages
#1JwexlerAt MailDotCom
jwexler@mail.usa.com

Please suggest how best to propose that the following feature be added to PostgreSQL's roadmap?

Ability to "Alter column position" as described in the section "Adding alter column syntax into postgres" of http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Alter_column_position (and the two links in that section).

Once implemented in tables, I would suggest a command perhaps similar to that in mysql (http://trebleclick.blogspot.com/2009/02/reorder-mysql-table-columns.html) as well as adding the feature to pgadmin and to PostgreSQL views.

I would suggest that addition of this feature should be considered common sense.

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#2Alvaro Herrera
alvherre@commandprompt.com
In reply to: JwexlerAt MailDotCom (#1)
Re: Adding alter column syntax into postgres

JwexlerAt MailDotCom wrote:

Please suggest how best to propose that the following feature be added to PostgreSQL's roadmap?

Ability to "Alter column position" as described in the section "Adding alter column syntax into postgres" of http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Alter_column_position (and the two links in that section).

It is already on the roadmap. You either need to do the actual work, or
convince someone else to do it for you.

--
Alvaro Herrera http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
PostgreSQL Replication, Consulting, Custom Development, 24x7 support

#3Josh Berkus
josh@agliodbs.com
In reply to: JwexlerAt MailDotCom (#1)
Re: Adding alter column syntax into postgres

Jwexler,

Please suggest how best to propose that the following feature be added to PostgreSQL's roadmap?

Ability to "Alter column position" as described in the section "Adding alter column syntax into postgres" of http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Alter_column_position (and the two links in that section).

Fortunately, there's already a specification discussed for this. We'd
like to have the ability for each column to have both a logical position
and a physical position which are separate. This would also allow us to
dynamically re-arrange the columns at CREATE time for best storage
efficiency.

It would also provide a foundation for column aliases.

However, I don't think there's much code for this yet. Are you in a
position to either write code, or fund work?

Once implemented in tables, I would suggest a command perhaps similar to that in mysql (http://trebleclick.blogspot.com/2009/02/reorder-mysql-table-columns.html) as well as adding the feature to pgadmin and to PostgreSQL views.

Hmmmm. It *might* be worth supporting that for MySQL compatibility, but
really it hardly seems adequate to a large table where you want to
rearrange most of the columns. Seems like we'd need a better syntax.

I would suggest that addition of this feature should be considered common sense.

Actually, it's not. Column ordering is supposed to be arbitrary and
implementation-dependent, so we're on our own here. However, it would
help people administer their applications ... even if it encourages bad
application writers to continue using "SELECT *".

--
Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL Experts Inc.
www.pgexperts.com

#4JwexlerAt MailDotCom
jwexler@mail.usa.com
In reply to: Josh Berkus (#3)
Re: Adding alter column syntax into postgres

Fortunately, there's already a specification discussed for this. We'd
like to have the ability for each column to have both a logical position
and a physical position which are separate. This would also allow us to
dynamically re-arrange the columns at CREATE time for best storage
efficiency.

It would also provide a foundation for column aliases.

However, I don't think there's much code for this yet. Are you in a
position to either write code, or fund work?

I am glad to here that there is a specification discussed. This would be a great help in administration and organization tasks (for example when working with a very large database using the pgadmin tool).
I wish I were in a position for assisting with the code or funding but unfortunately am not.
Thank you for considering and I am hoping that interest in this increases and over the near-term horizon.

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