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Adding a new column to a table in MySQL
schedule Mar 5, 2023
Last updated local_offer
Tags MySQL
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We can add a new column to an existing table in MySQL using the following syntax:
ALTER TABLE table_name ADD new_column_name data_type;
Example
Consider the following table containing some student information:
ID | Name | Age | Hobby |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Alex | 30 | Programming |
2 | Bob | 15 | Programming |
3 | Cathy | 20 | Swimming |
The above table can be created using the code here.
To check the current table characteristics:
DESCRIBE info;
+-------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |+-------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+| id | int unsigned | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment || name | varchar(20) | YES | | NULL | || age | int | YES | | NULL | || hobby | varchar(20) | YES | | NULL | |+-------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
To add a new column called last_name:
ALTER TABLE info ADD last_name VARCHAR(30);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)Records: 0 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
We have specified the datatype of last_name to be 30 character VARCHAR.
To confirm the new column has indeed been added:
DESCRIBE info;
+-----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |+-----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+| id | int unsigned | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment || name | varchar(20) | YES | | NULL | || age | int | YES | | NULL | || hobby | varchar(20) | YES | | NULL | || last_name | varchar(30) | YES | | NULL | |+-----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
Published by Arthur Yanagisawa
Edited by 0 others
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