Re: Patch for column properties

Dave Page wrote:
> Guillaume Lelarge wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> When someone set a default value for a column and set NOT NULL at the
>> same time, the query could fail if the table already contains NULL
>> values for this column. This patch adds an UPDATE statement to put the
>> DEFAULT value in this column for all NULL values (but only when you
>> SET NULL and SET DEFAULT the column at the same time).
>>
>> I've done this patch for a friend but I don't quite like this patch
>> because of its behaviour. It doesn't warn the user. I think it would
>> be better to show a dialog telling that an UPDATE statement will be
>> executed because otherwise the whole action could fail.
>>
>> So here are some questions :
>> * do you think this patch is worth it ?
>
> I'm not keen on the idea.I prefer to leave that sort of behaviour to the
> server, *if* thats the way it gets written.

You could first execute "alter table .. set default ...; alter table ..set not
null" first, and only if the "set not null" fails ask the user if he wants
the update to be performed. I personally would like the feature I think,
though I can easily live without it ;-)

greetings, Florian Pflug