MySQL Alter Table Add Field Before or After a Field Already Present

MySQL Alter Table Add Field Before or After a field already present

$query = "ALTER TABLE `" . $table_prefix . "posts_to_bookmark` 
          ADD COLUMN `ping_status` INT(1) NOT NULL 
          AFTER `<TABLE COLUMN BEFORE THIS COLUMN>`";

I believe you need to have ADD COLUMN and use AFTER, not BEFORE.

In case you want to place column at the beginning of a table, use the FIRST statement:

$query = "ALTER TABLE `" . $table_prefix . "posts_to_bookmark`
          ADD COLUMN `ping_status` INT(1) NOT NULL 
          FIRST";

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/alter-table.html

MySQL: ALTER TABLE if column not exists

Use the following in a stored procedure:

IF NOT EXISTS( SELECT NULL
            FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
           WHERE table_name = 'tablename'
             AND table_schema = 'db_name'
             AND column_name = 'columnname')  THEN

  ALTER TABLE `TableName` ADD `ColumnName` int(1) NOT NULL default '0';

END IF;

Adding multiple columns AFTER a specific column in MySQL

Try this

ALTER TABLE users
ADD COLUMN `count` SMALLINT(6) NOT NULL AFTER `lastname`,
ADD COLUMN `log` VARCHAR(12) NOT NULL AFTER `count`,
ADD COLUMN `status` INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AFTER `log`;

check the syntax

How to insert columns at a specific position in existing table?

ALTER TABLE by default adds new columns at the end of the table. Use the AFTER directive to place it in a certain position within the table:

ALTER table table_name
    Add column column_name57 integer AFTER column_name56

From mysql doc

To add a column at a specific position within a table row, use FIRST or AFTERcol_name. The default is to add the column last. You can also use FIRST and AFTER in CHANGE or MODIFY operations to reorder columns within a table.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/alter-table.html

I googled for this for PostgreSQL but it seems to be impossible.

add column to mysql table if it does not exist

Note that INFORMATION_SCHEMA isn't supported in MySQL prior to 5.0. Nor are stored procedures supported prior to 5.0, so if you need to support MySQL 4.1, this solution isn't good.

One solution used by frameworks that use database migrations is to record in your database a revision number for the schema. Just a table with a single column and single row, with an integer indicating which revision is current in effect. When you update the schema, increment the number.

Another solution would be to just try the ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN command. It should throw an error if the column already exists.

ERROR 1060 (42S21): Duplicate column name 'newcolumnname'

Catch the error and disregard it in your upgrade script.

Adding a new SQL column with a default value

Try this:

ALTER TABLE table1 ADD COLUMN foo INT DEFAULT 0;

---

From the documentation that you linked to:

ALTER [ONLINE | OFFLINE] [IGNORE] TABLE tbl_name
   alter_specification [, alter_specification] ...

alter_specification:
    ...
    ADD [COLUMN] (col_name column_definition,...)
    ...

To find the syntax for column_definition search a bit further down the page:

column_definition clauses use the same syntax for ADD and CHANGE as for CREATE TABLE. See Section 12.1.17, “CREATE TABLE Syntax”.

And from the linked page:

column_definition:  
   data_type [NOT NULL | NULL] [DEFAULT default_value]
   [AUTO_INCREMENT] [UNIQUE [KEY] | [PRIMARY] KEY]  
   [COMMENT 'string']  
   [COLUMN_FORMAT {FIXED|DYNAMIC|DEFAULT}]  
   [STORAGE {DISK|MEMORY|DEFAULT}]  
   [reference_definition]  

Notice the word DEFAULT there.

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