Re: DB2 SQL table change efficiency

[Charles Wilt <charles.wilt@xxxxxxxxx>]

Are you sure about that?

Per the docs, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190273.aspx, ALTER
TABLE requires "The previous data type must be implicitly convertible to
the new data type."

Charles

On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 2:55 PM, Matt Olson <Matt.Olson@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Anyone know of a product in DB2 that allows for easier table changing?
>
> If you have a table with a character column that contains dates and I want
> to change the fields to actual DATE columns it doesn't work using Alter
> Table.
>
> In Microsoft SQL it is a couple click affair, change column type and hit
> the save button and it will retain all data.  I think it does all these
> developer efficiency things in the background:
>
>
> 1.       Renames table to some temporary name
>
> 2.       Recreates the table with new data types, fields, etc
>
> 3.       Copys all the data from the old table to the new table
>
> 4.       Removes the temporary table
>
> It seems in DB2 in IBM i I lose all these efficiencies?
>
> Anyway to bring this automation back using some tool?
>
> Thanks
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