issues: 621989740

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id node_id number title user state locked assignee milestone comments created_at updated_at closed_at author_association pull_request body repo type active_lock_reason performed_via_github_app reactions draft state_reason
621989740 MDU6SXNzdWU2MjE5ODk3NDA= 114 table.transform() method for advanced alter table 9599 closed 0   5897911 26 2020-05-20T18:20:46Z 2020-09-22T07:51:37Z 2020-09-22T04:20:02Z OWNER  

SQLite's ALTER TABLE can only do the following:

  • Rename a table
  • Rename a column
  • Add a column

Notably, it cannot drop columns - so tricks like "add a float version of this text column, populate it, then drop the old one and rename" won't work.

The docs here https://www.sqlite.org/lang_altertable.html#making_other_kinds_of_table_schema_changes describe a way of implementing full alters safely within a transaction, but it's fiddly.

  1. Create new table
  2. Copy data
  3. Drop old table
  4. Rename new into old

It would be great if sqlite-utils provided an abstraction to help make these kinds of changes safely.

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