From: "Kelly Burkhart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> On 1/20/07, Shoaib Mir <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Should help --> ALTER TABLE tablename ALTER columname TYPE text;
>
> I was looking for a way to alter a column from varchar(n) to text
> without using the alter command and consequently touching every single
> row. Below is sql which seems to work, but is it advisable to do such
> shenanigans? (are varchar and text the same thing)?
Always have been under the impression myself that text and varchar (and
character varying for that matter) were all aliases for the exact same thing in
the back end. Just the latter allows for that limit (n) to be specified if
your specs require. Leaving that off saves a few validation cycles, but at the
possible expense of schema and data incompatability with other systems should
that ever matter.
So yeah, I don't see any reason it shouldn't work just fine.
- Josh Williams
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TIP 9: In versions below 8.0, the planner will ignore your desire to
choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not
match
