Re: How to modify ENUM datatypes?

All,

In the past I have used foreign keys to lookup tables for small lists of values that I now think ENUM could do the job of.  I was hoping that by using ENUM, I would avoid having to do joins in my queries, and that I'd be making the data more robust and faster.

I used to have a table for account_status:

 A | Active
 B | Billing Failed
 C | Closed
 D | Deactivated

 account.acct_type CHAR references account_type.acct_type CHAR

But, now I've converted that to an ENUM:

 ACTIVE
 BILLING_FAILED
 CLOSED
 DEACTIVATED

 account.acct_type ENUM account_type

The problem is that once I create a column in my account table that uses this 'account_type' datatype, I can't seem to change or add to it any more.  I want to add a new value or edit/delete an existing one.

How do you make changes to an ENUM datatype that is already in use?