ALTER TABLE - Rename a column

Question

This is driving me nuts!

I want to rename a column from read-more to read_more in my blog table

I tried all this:

  ALTER TABLE blog RENAME COLUMN read-more to read_more;
  ALTER TABLE blog CHANGE COLUMN 'read-more' 'read_more' VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL;

And I always get this!

ERROR 1064 (42000): 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 'COLUMN read-more to read_more' at line 1

I'm using MySQL 5.5

Answer 1

The valid syntax is close to your second try, but you need to escape the column names with backticks not with single quotes:

ALTER TABLE `blog` CHANGE COLUMN `read-more` `read_more` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL;

Answer 2

ALTER TABLE `blog` CHANGE  `read-more` `read_more` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL;

Above mentioned query is correct and there is no need to use "column" keyword and quotes around table and column name if you are using mysql database:

ALTER TABLE blog CHANGE read-more read_more VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL;

Answer 3

Here's what worked for me:

ALTER TABLE vm_list CHANGE `vm_notes]` vm_notes VARCHAR(255); 

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec) 
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

Yes, I somehow got a column named "vm_notes]" in there.