Re: DB2 SQL table change efficiency

En easy one-step-change will require all character fields to contain valid dates, often very unlikely.

You can add a date field before the char, convert and copy then delete the char
If conversion fails, you will need to clean your char-dates.

The i is more strict with errors, other systems are more tolerant, and less reliable.


Matt Olson 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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