Apache Derby - Alter Table Statement

The ALTER TABLE statement, allows you to alter an existing table. Using this you can do the following −

  • Add a column, add a constraint

  • Drop a column, drop a constraint

  • Change the row level locking of a table

Let us assume we have created a table named Employees as shown below −

ij> CREATE TABLE Employees (
   Id INT NOT NULL GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY,
   Name VARCHAR(255),
   Salary INT NOT NULL,
   Location VARCHAR(255),
   PRIMARY KEY (Id)
);

And, inserted four records using the insert statement as −

ij> INSERT INTO Employees (Name, Salary, Location) VALUES
   ('Amit', 30000, 'Hyderabad'),
   ('Kalyan', 40000, 'Vishakhapatnam'),
   ('Renuka', 50000, 'Delhi'),
   ('Archana', 15000, 'Mumbai');

Adding a column to a Table

Following is the syntax to add a column to a table using ALTER statement.

ALTER TABLE table_name ADD COLUMN column_name column_type;

Example

Using ALTER statement, we are trying to add a new column named Age with the type integer.

ALTER TABLE Employees ADD COLUMN Age INT;
0 rows inserted/updated/deleted

Add another column named Phone_No with the type integer.

ALTER TABLE Employees ADD COLUMN Phone_No BIGINT;
0 rows inserted/updated/deleted

The DESCRIBE command describes specified table by listing the columns and their details, if the table exists. If you DESCRIBE, the table Employees you can observe the newly added columns as shown below −

ij> DESCRIBE Employees;
COLUMN_NAME |TYPE_NAME|DEC&|NUM&|COLUM&|COLUMN_DEF|CHAR_OCTE&|IS_NULL&
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ID          |INTEGER  |0   |10   |10   |AUTOINCRE&|NULL      |NO
NAME        |VARCHAR  |NULL|NULL |255  |NULL      |510       |YES
SALARY      |INTEGER  |0   |10   |10   |NULL      |NULL      |NO
LOCATION    |VARCHAR  |NULL|NULL |255  |NULL      |510       |YES
AGE         |INTEGER  |0   |10   |10   |NULL      |NULL      |YES
PHONE_NO    |INTEGER  |0   |10   |10   |NULL      |NULL      |YES
6 rows selected

Adding a constraint to a table

Following is the syntax to add a constraint to a column of a table using ALTER statement.

ALTER TABLE table_name ADD CONSTRAINT constraint_name constraint (column_name);

Where constraint can be NOT NULL, NULL, PRIMARY KEY, UNIQUE, FOREIGN KEY, CHECK.

Example

Using ALTER statement, we are trying to add constraint UNIQUE to the Phone_No column.

ij> ALTER TABLE Employees ADD CONSTRAINT New_Constraint UNIQUE(Phone_No);
0 rows inserted/updated/deleted

Once, you add a UNIQUE constraint to a column, it cannot have the same values for two rows, i.e., phone number should be unique for each employee.

If you try to add two columns with a same phone number, you will get an exception as shown below.

ij> INSERT INTO Employees (Name, Salary, Location, Age, Phone_No) VALUES
('Amit', 30000, 'Hyderabad', 30, 9848022338);
1 row inserted/updated/deleted
ij> INSERT INTO Employees (Name, Salary, Location, Age, Phone_No) VALUES
('Sumit', 35000, 'Chennai', 25, 9848022338);
ERROR 23505: The statement was aborted because it would have caused a duplicate
key value in a unique or primary key constraint or unique index identified by
'NEW_CONSTRAINT' defined on 'EMPLOYEES'.

Dropping a constraint from a table

Following is the syntax to drop a constraint of a column −

ALTER TABLE table_name DROP CONSTRAINT constraint_name;

Example

The following query deletes the constraint name New_Constraint on the column Phone_No created above.

ij> ALTER TABLE Employees DROP CONSTRAINT New_Constraint;
0 rows inserted/updated/deleted

Since we have removed the UNIQUE constraint on the column Phone_No, you can add columns with the same phone number.

ij> INSERT INTO Employees (Name, Salary, Location, Age, Phone_No) VALUES
('Sumit', 35000, 'Chennai', 25, 9848022338);
1 row inserted/updated/deleted

You can verify the contents of the table ij> select * from Employees as follows −

ID |NAME  |SALARY |LOCATION |AGE |PHONE_NO
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1  |Amit  |30000  |Hyderabad|30  |9848022338
2  |Sumit |35000  |Chennai  |25  |9848022338
2 rows selected

Dropping a column from a table

Following is the syntax to drop a column of a column.

ALTER TABLE table_name DROP COLUMN column_name;

Example

Following query deletes the column named age of the employee −

ij> ALTER TABLE Employees DROP COLUMN Age;
0 rows inserted/updated/deleted

If you describe the table, you can see only 4 columns.

ij> DESCRIBE Employees;
COLUMN_NAME |TYPE_NAME|DEC&|NUM&|COLUM&|COLUMN_DEF |CHAR_OCTE&|IS_NULL&
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ID          |INTEGER  |0   |10  |10    |AUTOINCRE& |NULL      |NO
NAME        |VARCHAR  |NULL|NULL|255   |NULL       |510       |YES
SALARY      |INTEGER  |0   |10  |10    |NULL       |NULL      |NO
LOCATION    |VARCHAR  |NULL|NULL|255   |NULL       |510       |YES
PHONE_NO    |BIGINT   |0   |10  |19    |NULL       |NULL      |YES

Altering table using JDBC program

Following is the JDBC program to alter a table using the ALTER query −

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.Statement;
public class AlterTableExample {
   public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
      //Registering the driver
      Class.forName("org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver");
      //Getting the Connection object
      String URL = "jdbc:derby:sampleDB;create=true";
      Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection(URL);

      //Creating the Statement object
      Statement stmt = conn.createStatement();

      //Executing the query
      String createQuery = "CREATE TABLE Employees( "
         + "Id INT NOT NULL GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY, "
         + "Name VARCHAR(255), "
         + "Salary INT NOT NULL, "
         + "Location VARCHAR(255), "
         + "PRIMARY KEY (Id))";

      stmt.execute(createQuery);
      System.out.println("Table created");
      System.out.println(" ");

      //Executing the query
      String insertQuery = "INSERT INTO Employees("
         + "Name, Salary, Location) VALUES "
         + "('Amit', 30000, 'Hyderabad'), "
         + "('Kalyan', 40000, 'Vishakhapatnam'), "
         + "('Renuka', 50000, 'Delhi'), "
         + "('Archana', 15000, 'Mumbai'), "
         + "('Trupti', 45000, 'Kochin')";

      stmt.execute(insertQuery);
      System.out.println("Values inserted");
      System.out.println(" ");

      //Executing the query
      String selectQuery = "SELECT * FROM Employees";
      ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(selectQuery);
      System.out.println("Contents of the table after inserting the table");
      while(rs.next()) {
         System.out.println("Id: "+rs.getString("Id"));
         System.out.println("Name: "+rs.getString("Name"));
         System.out.println("Salary: "+rs.getString("Salary"));
         System.out.println("Location: "+rs.getString("Location"));
      }
      System.out.println(" ");

      //Altering the table
      stmt.execute("ALTER TABLE Employees ADD COLUMN Age INT");
      stmt.execute("ALTER TABLE Employees ADD COLUMN Phone_No BigINT");
      stmt.execute("ALTER TABLE Employees " + "ADD CONSTRAINT New_Constraint UNIQUE(Phone_No)");

      stmt.execute("INSERT INTO Employees "
         + "(Name, Salary, Location, Age, Phone_No) "
         + "VALUES ('Amit', 30000, 'Hyderabad', 30, 9848022338)");
      ResultSet alterResult = stmt.executeQuery("Select * from Employees");
      System.out.println("Contents of the table after altering "
         + "the table and inserting values to it: ");
      while(alterResult.next()) {
         System.out.println("Id: "+alterResult.getString("Id"));
         System.out.println("Name: "+alterResult.getString("Name"));
         System.out.println("Salary: "+alterResult.getString("Salary"));
         System.out.println("Location: "+alterResult.getString("Location"));
         System.out.println("Age: "+alterResult.getString("Age"));
         System.out.println("Phone_No: "+alterResult.getString("Phone_No"));
      }
   }
}

Output

On executing the above program, the following output will be generated −

Table created

Values inserted

Contents of the table after inserting the table
Id: 1
Name: Amit
Salary: 30000
Location: Hyderabad
Id: 2
Name: Kalyan
Salary: 40000
Location: Vishakhapatnam
Id: 3
Name: Renuka
Salary: 50000
Location: Delhi
Id: 4
Name: Archana
Salary: 15000
Location: Mumbai
Id: 5
Name: Trupti
Salary: 45000
Location: Kochin

Contents of the table after altering the table and inserting values to it:
Id: 1
Name: Amit
Salary: 30000
Location: Hyderabad
Age: null
Phone_No: null
Id: 2
Name: Kalyan
Salary: 40000
Location: Vishakhapatnam
Age: null
Phone_No: null
Id: 3
Name: Renuka
Salary: 50000
Location: Delhi
Age: null
Phone_No: null
Id: 4
Name: Archana
Salary: 15000
Location: Mumbai
Age: null
Phone_No: null
Id: 5
Name: Trupti
Salary: 45000
Location: Kochin
Age: null
Phone_No: null
Id: 6
Name: Amit
Salary: 30000
Location: Hyderabad
Age: 30
Phone_No: 9848022338
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