Add not null column in a table

Originally Posted by bogie

Hi again

I have another question, I would like to add NOT NULL column in my table. I have done like this :

ALTER TABLE patent ALTER COLUMN patent_pri_date SET NOT NULL;

but it doesn't work and give the following error :
ERROR: ALTER TABLE: Attribute "patent_pri_date" contains NULL values

is any body can help me how can i add NOT NULL column to my table ?, I use postgresql 7.4. Thank you very much.

Best regards,
Bogie

Originally Posted by bogie

Hi again

I have another question, I would like to add NOT NULL column in my table. I have done like this :

ALTER TABLE patent ALTER COLUMN patent_pri_date SET NOT NULL;

but it doesn't work and give the following error :
ERROR: ALTER TABLE: Attribute "patent_pri_date" contains NULL values

is any body can help me how can i add NOT NULL column to my table ?, I use postgresql 7.4. Thank you very much.

Best regards,
Bogie

Originally Posted by amitpatel66

You can add NOT NULL columns to a table only if the table is EMPTY and does not contain any ROW.

Originally Posted by rski

I in version 8.* u can add not null on a column if it does not contain null values. Maybe I'm wrong but in earlier versions it's looks the same.

Originally Posted by rski

I looks like there are rows in which pri_date column contans NULLS values. U should fill it first.