Adding multiple columns AFTER a specific column in MySQL

Question

I need to add multiple columns to a table but position the columns after a column called lastname.

I have tried this:

ALTER TABLE `users` ADD COLUMN
(
    `count` smallint(6) NOT NULL,
    `log` varchar(12) NOT NULL,
    `status` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL
) 
AFTER `lastname`;

I get this error:

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ') AFTER lastname' at line 7

How can I use AFTER in a query like this?

Answer 1

Try this

ALTER TABLE users
ADD COLUMN `count` SMALLINT(6) NOT NULL AFTER `lastname`,
ADD COLUMN `log` VARCHAR(12) NOT NULL AFTER `count`,
ADD COLUMN `status` INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AFTER `log`;

check the syntax

Answer 2

If you want to add a single column after a specific field, then the following MySQL query should work:

ALTER TABLE users
    ADD COLUMN count SMALLINT(6) NOT NULL
    AFTER lastname

If you want to add multiple columns, then you need to use 'ADD' command each time for a column. Here is the MySQL query for this:

ALTER TABLE users
    ADD COLUMN count SMALLINT(6) NOT NULL,
    ADD COLUMN log VARCHAR(12) NOT NULL,
    ADD COLUMN status INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL
    AFTER lastname

---

Point to note

In the second method, the last ADD COLUMN column should actually be the first column you want to append to the table.

E.g: if you want to add count, log, status in the exact order after lastname, then the syntax would actually be:

ALTER TABLE users
    ADD COLUMN log VARCHAR(12) NOT NULL AFTER lastname,
    ADD COLUMN status INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AFTER lastname,
    ADD COLUMN count SMALLINT(6) NOT NULL AFTER lastname
    

Answer 3

This one is correct:

ALTER TABLE `users`
    ADD COLUMN `count` SMALLINT(6) NOT NULL AFTER `lastname`,
    ADD COLUMN `log` VARCHAR(12) NOT NULL AFTER `count`,
    ADD COLUMN `status` INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AFTER `log`;

Answer 4

You cannot mention multiple column names with commas using ADD COLUMN. You need to mention ADD COLUMN every time you define a new column.

Answer 5

ALTER TABLE `users` ADD COLUMN
`COLUMN NAME` DATATYPE(SIZE) AFTER `EXISTING COLUMN NAME`;

You can do it with this, working fine for me.

Answer 6

One possibility would be to not bother about reordering the columns in the table and simply modify it by add the columns. Then, create a view which has the columns in the order you want -- assuming that the order is truly important. The view can be easily changed to reflect any ordering that you want. Since I can't imagine that the order would be important for programmatic applications, the view should suffice for those manual queries where it might be important.

Answer 7

ALTER TABLE listing ADD count INT(5), ADD log VARCHAR(200), ADD status VARCHAR(20) AFTER stat

It will give good results.

Answer 8

Alternatively:

ALTER TABLE users
ADD COLUMN `status` INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AFTER `lastname`,
ADD COLUMN `log` VARCHAR(12) NOT NULL AFTER `lastname`,
ADD COLUMN `count` SMALLINT(6) NOT NULL AFTER `lastname`;

Will put them in the order you want while streamlining the AFTER statement.

Answer 9

This works fine for me:

ALTER TABLE 'users'
ADD COLUMN 'count' SMALLINT(6) NOT NULL AFTER 'lastname',
ADD COLUMN 'log' VARCHAR(12) NOT NULL AFTER 'count',
ADD COLUMN 'status' INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AFTER 'log';

Answer 10

The solution that worked for me with default value 0 is the following

ALTER TABLE reservations ADD COLUMN isGuest BIT DEFAULT 0

Answer 11

I have done this code in case anyone faced my problem of adding lots of fields fast using MySQl code hope it helps , u can run this code on any online php compiler as well if u are too busy!

$fields = array(

        'col_one' ,
        'col_two' ,
        'col_three'

    );

    $startF = 'after_col';
    $table = 'table_name';

    $output = 'ALTER TABLE ' .$table.'<br>';
    for($i=0 ; $i<count($fields) ; $i++){
        if($i==0){
            $output.= 'ADD COLUMN '.$fields[$i].' VARCHAR(15) AFTER '.$startF.',' . '<br>';

        }else{
            $output.= 'ADD COLUMN '.$fields[$i].' VARCHAR(15) AFTER '.$fields[$i-1].',' . '<br>';

        }
    }

// extra fields without the array

    $output.= 'ADD COLUMN col_four VARCHAR(255) AFTER any_col_u_want,  '. '<br>';
    $output.= 'ADD COLUMN col_five VARCHAR(255) AFTER col_four,  '. '<br>';
    $output.= 'ADD COLUMN col_six VARCHAR(255) AFTER col_five'. '<br>';



    echo $output;