Re: Removing NOT NULL Contraint

When I need to change table (e.g. adding new column or changing col attr)

I used the following:
1) dump the table: pg_dump -t my_table > my_table.out
2) edit my_table slightly (e.g. remain only COPY statement)
3) delete table my_table (also my_table's sequences if any)
4) create table as it should be
5) populate table, e.g. pgsql -e my_db < my_table.out
6) setting sequences, etc. (e.g. select setval('my_table_sequence', ...))

If you will know more convinient way, please let me now.

Matthew wrote:

> I may be missing something simple here, but I have an attribute in a
> table that was created as NOT NULL.  I now need to remove this
> constraint.  I don't see a proper way to do this.  I think I can update
> the pg_attribute table and change attnotnull from true to false.  Is
> this an acceptable solution or is there a good reason that I should not
> directly edit the system tables?
>
> Maybe I'm missing something but I didn't see another way to do it other
> then creating a new table, selecting into it and dropping the old table,
> which seems like a lot of work for something so simple.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Matt