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
- AlterTableSpec
- ColumnDef
- ColumnPosition
AlterTableStmt ::=
'ALTER' IgnoreOptional 'TABLE' TableName ( AlterTableSpecListOpt AlterTablePartitionOpt | 'ANALYZE' 'PARTITION' PartitionNameList ( 'INDEX' IndexNameList )? AnalyzeOptionListOpt )
AlterTableSpec ::=
TableOptionList
| 'SET' 'TIFLASH' 'REPLICA' LengthNum LocationLabelList
| 'CONVERT' 'TO' CharsetKw ( CharsetName | 'DEFAULT' ) OptCollate
| 'ADD' ( ColumnKeywordOpt IfNotExists ( ColumnDef ColumnPosition | '(' TableElementList ')' ) | Constraint | 'PARTITION' IfNotExists NoWriteToBinLogAliasOpt ( PartitionDefinitionListOpt | 'PARTITIONS' NUM ) )
| ( ( 'CHECK' | 'TRUNCATE' ) 'PARTITION' | ( 'OPTIMIZE' | 'REPAIR' | 'REBUILD' ) 'PARTITION' NoWriteToBinLogAliasOpt ) AllOrPartitionNameList
| 'COALESCE' 'PARTITION' NoWriteToBinLogAliasOpt NUM
| 'DROP' ( ColumnKeywordOpt IfExists ColumnName RestrictOrCascadeOpt | 'PRIMARY' 'KEY' | 'PARTITION' IfExists PartitionNameList | ( KeyOrIndex IfExists | 'CHECK' ) Identifier | 'FOREIGN' 'KEY' IfExists Symbol )
| 'EXCHANGE' 'PARTITION' Identifier 'WITH' 'TABLE' TableName WithValidationOpt
| ( 'IMPORT' | 'DISCARD' ) ( 'PARTITION' AllOrPartitionNameList )? 'TABLESPACE'
| 'REORGANIZE' 'PARTITION' NoWriteToBinLogAliasOpt ReorganizePartitionRuleOpt
| 'ORDER' 'BY' AlterOrderItem ( ',' AlterOrderItem )*
| ( 'DISABLE' | 'ENABLE' ) 'KEYS'
| ( 'MODIFY' ColumnKeywordOpt IfExists | 'CHANGE' ColumnKeywordOpt IfExists ColumnName ) ColumnDef ColumnPosition
| 'ALTER' ( ColumnKeywordOpt ColumnName ( 'SET' 'DEFAULT' ( SignedLiteral | '(' Expression ')' ) | 'DROP' 'DEFAULT' ) | 'CHECK' Identifier EnforcedOrNot | 'INDEX' Identifier IndexInvisible )
| 'RENAME' ( ( 'COLUMN' | KeyOrIndex ) Identifier 'TO' Identifier | ( 'TO' | '='? | 'AS' ) TableName )
| LockClause
| AlgorithmClause
| 'FORCE'
| ( 'WITH' | 'WITHOUT' ) 'VALIDATION'
| 'SECONDARY_LOAD'
| 'SECONDARY_UNLOAD'
ColumnDef ::=
ColumnName ( Type | 'SERIAL' ) ColumnOptionListOpt
ColumnPosition ::=
( 'FIRST' | 'AFTER' ColumnName )?
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 KEYis not supported. - Adding a new column and setting it to
AUTO_INCREMENTis not supported. - There are limitations on adding generated columns, refer to: generated column limitations.