Liquibase Change Types modifyDataType

Sometimes requirement is to change the data type of some columns of the existing tables. Liquibase provides modifyDataType Change Type to change the data type of the existing columns.

Create table

<?xml version="1.1" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<databaseChangeLog xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog" xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext" xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd">
	<changeSet author="wesome" id="1693111591793-1">
		<createTable catalogName="appledb" schemaName="appledb" tablespace="appledb" tableName="apple">
			<column name="apple_id" type="BIGINT">
				<constraints unique="true" primaryKey="true" />
			</column>
			<column name="apple_name" type="VARCHAR(20)" />
			<column name="current_date_time" type="datetime" />
		</createTable>
	</changeSet>
</databaseChangeLog>

liquibase.properties (update changeLog File file format with SQL, XML, YAML, JSON as per changelog.mysql.)

changeLogFile=changelog.mysql.xml
liquibase.command.url:jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/appleDb?createDatabaseIfNotExist=true&autoReconnect=true&useSSL=false&allowPublicKeyRetrieval=true
liquibase.command.username : root
liquibase.command.password : rootroot

Run command liquibase update

Modify Data Type of Single Column

To drop a single column Liquibase provides simple changeset, that takes tableName and columnName

<?xml version="1.1" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<databaseChangeLog xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog" xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext" xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd">
	<changeSet author="wesome" id="1692599548266-1">
		<modifyDataType catalogName="appledb" columnName="apple_name" newDataType="nvarchar(20)" schemaName="appledb" tableName="apple" />
	</changeSet>
</databaseChangeLog>

liquibase.properties (update changeLog File file format with SQL, XML, YAML, JSON as per changelog.mysql.)

changeLogFile=changelog.mysql.xml
liquibase.command.url:jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/appleDb?createDatabaseIfNotExist=true&autoReconnect=true&useSSL=false&allowPublicKeyRetrieval=true
liquibase.command.username : root
liquibase.command.password : rootroot

Run command liquibase update

Modify Data Type of Multiple Column

In order to change the data type of multiple columns at once, One solution is to have multiple changesets with each modification a column data type, but it will increase redundancy. Liquibase allows multiple nested modifyDataType tags for each column.

<?xml version="1.1" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<databaseChangeLog xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog" xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext" xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd">	
	<changeSet author="wesome" id="1692599548266-1">
		<modifyDataType catalogName="appledb" columnName="apple_name" newDataType="nvarchar(20)" schemaName="appledb" tableName="apple" />
		<modifyDataType catalogName="appledb" columnName="current_date_time" newDataType="TIMESTAMP" schemaName="appledb" tableName="apple" />
	</changeSet>
</databaseChangeLog>

liquibase.properties (update changeLog File file format with SQL, XML, YAML, JSON as per changelog.mysql.)

changeLogFile=changelog.mysql.xml
liquibase.command.url:jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/appleDb?createDatabaseIfNotExist=true&autoReconnect=true&useSSL=false&allowPublicKeyRetrieval=true
liquibase.command.username : root
liquibase.command.password : rootroot

Run command liquibase update