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ADD COLUMN

The ALTER TABLE.. ADD COLUMN statement adds a column to an existing table. This operation is online in TiDB, which means that neither reads or writes to the table are blocked by adding a column.

Synopsis

AlterTableStmt
ALTERIgnoreOptionalTABLETableNameAlterTableSpecListOptAlterTablePartitionOptANALYZEPARTITIONPartitionNameListINDEXIndexNameListAnalyzeOptionListOpt
AlterTableSpec
TableOptionListSETTIFLASHREPLICALengthNumLocationLabelListCONVERTTOCharsetKwCharsetNameDEFAULTOptCollateADDColumnKeywordOptIfNotExistsColumnDefColumnPosition(TableElementList)ConstraintPARTITIONIfNotExistsNoWriteToBinLogAliasOptPartitionDefinitionListOptPARTITIONSNUMCHECKTRUNCATEPARTITIONOPTIMIZEREPAIRREBUILDPARTITIONNoWriteToBinLogAliasOptAllOrPartitionNameListCOALESCEPARTITIONNoWriteToBinLogAliasOptNUMDROPColumnKeywordOptIfExistsColumnNameRestrictOrCascadeOptPRIMARYKEYPARTITIONIfExistsPartitionNameListKeyOrIndexIfExistsCHECKIdentifierFOREIGNKEYIfExistsSymbolEXCHANGEPARTITIONIdentifierWITHTABLETableNameWithValidationOptIMPORTDISCARDPARTITIONAllOrPartitionNameListTABLESPACEREORGANIZEPARTITIONNoWriteToBinLogAliasOptReorganizePartitionRuleOptORDERBYAlterOrderItem,DISABLEENABLEKEYSMODIFYColumnKeywordOptIfExistsCHANGEColumnKeywordOptIfExistsColumnNameColumnDefColumnPositionALTERColumnKeywordOptColumnNameSETDEFAULTSignedLiteral(Expression)DROPDEFAULTCHECKIdentifierEnforcedOrNotINDEXIdentifierIndexInvisibleRENAMECOLUMNKeyOrIndexIdentifierTOIdentifierTO=ASTableNameLockClauseAlgorithmClauseFORCEWITHWITHOUTVALIDATIONSECONDARY_LOADSECONDARY_UNLOAD
ColumnDef
ColumnNameTypeSERIALColumnOptionListOpt
ColumnPosition
FIRSTAFTERColumnName

Examples

mysql> CREATE TABLE t1 (id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.11 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO t1 VALUES (NULL);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.02 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM t1;
+----+
| id |
+----+
|  1 |
+----+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> ALTER TABLE t1 ADD COLUMN c1 INT NOT NULL;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.28 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM t1;
+----+----+
| id | c1 |
+----+----+
|  1 |  0 |
+----+----+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> ALTER TABLE t1 ADD c2 INT NOT NULL AFTER c1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.28 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM t1;
+----+----+----+
| id | c1 | c2 |
+----+----+----+
|  1 |  0 |  0 |
+----+----+----+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

MySQL compatibility

  • Adding multiple columns at the same time in a statement is currently not supported.
  • Adding a new column and setting it to the PRIMARY KEY is not supported.
  • Adding a new column and setting it to AUTO_INCREMENT is not supported.
  • There are limitations on adding generated columns, refer to: generated column limitations.

See also

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