ALTER TABLE x ALTER COLUMN y TYPE z

On this page:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/interactive/sql-altertable.html

there is this user comment:

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To change the data type of a column, do this:

BEGIN;
ALTER TABLE tab ADD COLUMN new_col new_data_type;
UPDATE tab SET new_col = CAST(old_col AS new_data_type);
ALTER TABLE tab RENAME old_col TO temp_name;
ALTER TABLE tab RENAME new_col TO old_col;
ALTER TABLE tab DROP COLUMN temp_name;
COMMIT;

You might then want to do VACUUM FULL tab to reclaim the disk space
used by the expired rows.

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The 8.1 release (and the 8.0 release) support the same functionality
with a single line:

ALTER TABLE tab ALTER COLUMN old_col TYPE new_data_type;

I think the user comment should be removed, unless there is some
benefit to using the multi-step process. If there is some benefit, I
think it should be described, so that users know when to use it instead
of the simpler technique.

-Kevin