Do we really want to see results like this? Of course not. If we run out of disk space, our queries get interrupted. By then, we would probably start praying that the index occupies less space than 10GB and our queries complete successfully.
#MYSQL ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN FREE#
This is the query we run: feel free to adapt, then copy and paste it into your Arctype client.ĪLTER TABLE demo_table MODIFY demo_column VARCHAR(150) NOT NULL AFTER another_column įirst, MySQL would make a copy of the table on the disk, then insert the current data into it, perform all of the necessary operations, and only then swap the old and new tables together: remember that we have 30GB of disk space left? After the temporary table would be created, we would have 10GB left. All in all, everything that this table consists of occupies 20GB of space on the disk.Īt this point, we might probably have a couple of other tables we work with – say, they occupy another 50GB of hard drive space, but you get the point. A good DBA would probably configure it to occupy 8GB or more of operating memory, and suppose that the table that we want to run ALTER TABLE queries on consists of 100 million records and isn’t normalized. Let’s say we have a dedicated server with 16GB RAM and 100GB of hard drive space. Also, if we run multiple ALTER TABLE queries one after another and are low on disk space, we would risk running out of it altogether. The second point is also heavily related to all of the other points because we also have to think about how our web server is configured and about the way we run our queries for them to complete without issues and as be as quick as possible: for example, if our database server is configured to use 80% of available operating memory, chances are that our queries would probably complete a whole lot faster than with the default configuration.
Secondly, the size of our tables does indeed matter because the bigger our tables are, the longer time they will take to copy over. Imagine copying possibly millions of unnecessary rows into another table…: sounds slow, doesn't it? Also, keep in mind that if our tables were not using normalization, our queries will be slower than they should be, especially if our tables are big. The speed of such a statement is directly dependent on the factors outlined below.įirst off, the structure of our tables is important because queries involving columns that were not “cared for” (indexed, etc.) properly will be slower than they should be. In other words, when MySQL is ordered to modify a table and an ALTER TABLE statement is run, MySQL makes a copy of the table that is being modified, inserts the data that we currently have inside of our table into it, performs all of the required operations there, and copies the data back into our table – only then we see the results.ĪLTER TABLE might work a little differently if we are not using InnoDB as our primary storage engine of choice – MyISAM will not show the rows that are being inserted into table until all operations have been completed, but nonetheless, the core premise remains the same.
ALTER TABLE performs all of its operations on a copy of the table, and not on the table itself. The speed of ALTER TABLE statements is, obviously, directly dependent on the size of the tables or columns we want to modify – however, there’s one caveat. On its end though, ALTER TABLE is mostly used when indexes are involved – when developers need to add indexes, they change the structure of their tables, and that's where ALTER TABLE comes into play once again. The things that ALTER TABLE can do are numerous – ALTER TABLE can be used to change names of tables or columns, or add or modify columns as well. Simply put, ALTER TABLE is a query in MySQL that allows us to modify (or ALTER) the structure of a table. If you’ve ever dug deeper into the world of MySQL though, you must know that there is one more query that is very important for both database administrators and developers – that query is ALTER TABLE.
#MYSQL ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN UPDATE#
SELECT queries allow us to read data, INSERT queries allow us to insert data into a given database, UPDATE queries allow us to update data for certain rows or for the entire table if we wish, DELETE queries let us delete records from a table, etc. Chances are, you know them like your five fingers. If you frequently find yourself immersed into the MySQL world, there’s probably no need to explain to you what SQL queries are and what they do.
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