How to rename a column in an existing MySQL table?

To rename a column in an existing MySQL table we can use ALTER TABLE command with CHANGE keyword as follows −

mysql> Alter table Student CHANGE Email Emailid Varchar(30);
Query OK, 5 rows affected (0.38 sec)
Records: 5 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0

With the help of query above, MySQL has changed the name of column ‘Email’ to ‘Emailid’.

We can specify the same data type & size or different data type & size with new column name as follows −

mysql> Alter table Student CHANGE Emailid Mailid char(35);
Query OK, 5 rows affected (0.29 sec)
Records: 5 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0

With the help of query above, MySQL has changed the name of the column from ‘Emailid’ to ‘Mailid’ along with its data type from varchar(30) to char(35).