Hello,

I'm able to increase the column length or a VARCHAR datatype column however when I tried to increase a CHAR datatype column it failes with an error message.
Whats the reason for this?

VARCHAR Example
CREATE TABLE VIN_FEC_FEL (FUEL_ECON_LABEL VARCHAR(3))
ALTER TABLE VIN_FEC_FEL ALTER COLUMN FUEL_ECON_LABEL SET DATA TYPE VARCHAR(10)

CHAR Example
CREATE TABLE VIN_FEC_FEL (FUEL_ECON_LABEL CHAR(3))
ALTER TABLE VIN_FEC_FEL ALTER COLUMN FUEL_ECON_LABEL SET DATA TYPE CHAR(10)
=> This alter statements fails...Why ?

Can't I increase a length of a CHAR datatype column?

Thanks,
Vij.

Hi vij,

you didn't mention the db2 version you are using.As you can very well change the char-size in db2 v8 but not in db2 v7. For that you need to drop n recreate.

just check it out.

Sinwar

resizing is only possible for var fields
char fields would require more space to be pre-allocated and can only be done with unload-drop table - create table - import
same for V8

I'm using DB2 UDB V8.2 under AIX 5.3

Read the manual for alter table. SQL Reference Vol 2.