Documentation Source Text

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chng {2018-09-00 (3.25.0)} {
<li> Add support for [window functions]
<li> Added the [Geopoly module]
<li> Enhancements the [ALTER TABLE] command:
<ol type="a">
  <li> Add support for renaming columns within a table using
       ALTER TABLE <i>table</i> RENAME COLUMN <i>oldname</i> TO <i>newname</i>.
  <li> Fix table rename feature so that it also updates references
       to the renamed table in [CREATE TRIGGER|triggers] and [views].
</ol>
<li> Query optimizer improvements:
<ol type="a">
  <li> Avoid unnecessary loads of columns in an aggregate query that
       are not within an aggregate function and that are not part
       of the GROUP BY clause.
  <li> The IN-early-out optimization: When doing a look-up on a
       multi-column index and an IN operator is used on a column

###############################################################################
Section {ALTER TABLE} altertable {{ALTER TABLE} {*ALTER}}

RecursiveBubbleDiagram alter-table-stmt
</tcl>

<p>SQLite supports a limited subset of ALTER TABLE.
The ALTER TABLE command in SQLite allows the user to rename a table,
to rename a column within a table, or to add a new column to an existing table.


<p> ^(The RENAME TO syntax changes the name of <yyterm>table-name</yyterm>
to <yyterm>new-table-name</yyterm>.)^
This command 
cannot be used to move a table between attached databases, only to rename 
a table within the same database.

^If the table being renamed has triggers or indices, then these remain
attached to the table after it has been renamed.  


Beginning with release 3.25.0 ([dateof:3.25.0]), references to the table
within trigger bodies and view definitions are also renamed.

</p>




<p> The RENAME COLUMN TO syntax changes the
<yyterm>old-column-name</yyterm> of table <yyterm>table-name</yyterm>
into <yyterm>new-column-name</yyterm>.  The column name is changed both
within the table definition itself and also within all indexes, triggers,
and views that reference the column.  If the column name change would
result in a semantic ambiguity in a trigger or view, then the RENAME



COLUMN fails with an error and no changes are applied.







<p> ^The ADD COLUMN syntax
is used to add a new column to an existing table.
^The new column is always appended to the end of the list of existing columns.
The [column-def] rule defines the characteristics of the new column.
^(The new column may take any of the forms permissible in a [CREATE TABLE]
statement, with the following restrictions:)^

<p>^Note also that when adding a [CHECK constraint], the CHECK constraint
is not tested against preexisting rows of the table.
^This can result in a table that contains data that
is in violation of the CHECK constraint.  Future versions of SQLite might
change to validate CHECK constraints as they are added.</p>

<p>The ALTER TABLE command works by modifing the SQL text of the schema
stored in the [sqlite_master table].
No changes are made to table content.
Because of this,
the execution time of the ALTER TABLE command is independent of
the amount of data in the table.  The ALTER TABLE command runs as quickly
on a table with 10 million rows as it does on a table with 1 row.
</p>

<p>After ADD COLUMN has been run on a database, that database will not
be readable by SQLite version 3.1.3 ([dateof:3.1.3]) and earlier.</p>

<tcl>hd_fragment otheralter</tcl>
<h3>Making Other Kinds Of Table Schema Changes</h3>

<p> The only schema altering commands directly supported by SQLite are the
"rename table", "rename column", and "add column" commands shown above.  
However, applications
can make other arbitrary changes to the format of a table using a simple
sequence of operations.
The steps to make arbitrary changes to the schema design of some table X
are as follows:

<ol>
<li><p>

changing the order of columns, adding or removing a UNIQUE constraint
or PRIMARY KEY, adding CHECK or FOREIGN KEY or NOT NULL constraints,
or changing the datatype for a column, for example.  However, a simpler
and faster procedure can optionally be used for
some changes that do no affect the on-disk content in any way.
The following simpler procedure is appropriate for removing
CHECK or FOREIGN KEY or NOT NULL constraints,
or adding, removing, or changing default values on
a column.

<ol>
<lI><p> Start a transaction.

<li><p> Run [PRAGMA schema_version] to determine the current schema
version number.  This number will be needed for step 6 below.