In the world of database management, ALTER TABLE operations are a crucial part of modifying database structures. MySQL, a popular database management system, offers online operations since version 5.6, providing a convenient way to perform these alterations without locking the table. However, there are caveats. In this blog, we’ll explore the process of altering VARCHAR columns online, delving into insights gained while expanding the size of such columns.

To kick start our journey, let’s consider a table definition that requires the expansion of a VARCHAR column named “_varchar” to accommodate more data. Here’s the original table definition:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS varchar_alter;
CREATE TABLE `varchar_alter` (
  `id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  `_varchar` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB;

We execute the initial ALTER TABLE command:

mysql> ALTER TABLE test.varchar_alter CHANGE COLUMN …

MySQL 5.6.17 was recently released (it is the latest MySQL 5.6, is GA), and is available for download here:

For this release, I counted 7 “Functionality Added” and/or “Incompatible Change” fixes:

1. Incompatible Change: The AES_ENCRYPT() and AES_DECRYPT() functions now permit control of the block encryption mode and take an optional initialization vector argument.
2. Incompatible Change: The ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO, NO_ZERO_DATE, and NO_ZERO_IN_DATE SQL modes now are deprecated and setting the sql_mode value to include any of them generates a warning. In MySQL 5.7, these modes do nothing. Instead, their effects are included in the effects of strict SQL mode (STRICT_ALL_TABLES or …