X-Original-To: pgsql-sql-postgresql.org@localhost.postgresql.org Received: from localhost (unknown [200.46.204.144]) by svr1.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 76F4A3A5B53 for ; Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:19:40 +0000 (GMT) Received: from svr1.postgresql.org ([200.46.204.71]) by localhost (av.hub.org [200.46.204.144]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 09123-08 for ; Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:19:23 +0000 (GMT) Received: from outmail.freedom2surf.net (outmail1.freedom2surf.net [194.106.33.237]) by svr1.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EB6963A5A31 for ; Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:19:24 +0000 (GMT) Received: from sam.samason.me.uk (sam.samason.me.uk [195.137.31.118]) by outmail.freedom2surf.net (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id j0DAJNnF028751 for ; Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:19:24 GMT Received: by sam.samason.me.uk (Postfix, from userid 1000) id CF5DA63715; Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:19:23 +0000 (GMT) Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:19:23 +0000 From: Sam Mason To: "'pgsql-sql@postgresql.org'" Subject: Re: Syntax error while altering col-type Message-ID: <20050113101923.GY14073@sam.samason.me.uk> Mail-Followup-To: "'pgsql-sql@postgresql.org'" References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-15 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at hub.org X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0 tagged_above=0 required=5 tests= X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 200501/76 X-Sequence-Number: 19864 KÖPFERL Robert wrote: >I'm a little bit perplexed now... is it really the case that pre 8.0 systems >aren't able to change col-types? I would guess that the column type altering code is just short hand for creating a new column of the correct type, copying the old column into the new one, deleting the old column, and renaming the new column to be the same as the old one. That is just a guess though! But if it's all bundled inside a transaction it should have about the same semantics, shouldn't it? Cheers, Sam