Re: [HACKERS] ALTER TABLE .. ALTER COLUMN .. ERROR: attribute .. haswrong type

On Tue, Jan 03, 2017 at 11:45:33AM -0500, Robert Haas wrote:
> > ts=# begin; drop view umts_eric_ch_switch_view, eric_umts_rnc_utrancell_view, umts_eric_cell_integrity_view; ALTER
TABLEeric_umts_rnc_utrancell_metrics ALTER COLUMN PMSUMPACKETLATENCY_000 TYPE BIGINT USING
PMSUMPACKETLATENCY_000::BIGINT;
> > BEGIN
> > DROP VIEW
> > ERROR:  attribute 424 has wrong type
> > DETAIL:  Table has type smallint, but query expects integer.
> > ts=#
> >
> > ts=# begin; drop view umts_eric_ch_switch_view, eric_umts_rnc_utrancell_view, umts_eric_cell_integrity_view; ALTER
TABLEeric_umts_rnc_utrancell_metrics ALTER COLUMN PMSUMPACKETLATENCY_000 TYPE BIGINT ;
 
> > BEGIN
> > DROP VIEW
> > ALTER TABLE
> > ts=#
> >
> > Is it useful to send something from pg_attribute, or other clues ??
> 
> So, are these errors reproducible?  Like, if you create a brand new

I can cause the error at will on the existing table, but I wouldn't know how to
reproduce the problem on a new table/database.  I'm guessing it has something
to do with dropped columns or historic alters (which I mentioned are typically
done separately on child tables vs their parent).

Since it's happened 3 times now on this table, but not others on this database,
I would guess it's an "data issue", possibly related to pg_upgrades.  IOW it
may be impossible to get into this state from a fresh initdb from a current
version.

I considered that perhaps it only affected our oldest tables, and would stop
happening once they were dropped, but note this ALTER is only of a parent and
its 3 most recent children.  So only the empty parent could be described as
"old".

Justin