Re: Altering a table - positioning new columns

> > Yeah, these are pretty serious drawbacks. It took me 30+ minutes to do
> > this for just _one_ table. I don't like new fields trailing the column list because
> > I prefer all similar columns to be grouped. That way if you are viewing the
> > data through a UI, it's easier to see/read.
> > But I guess unless I want to spend hours adding a few columns to some
> > tables, I'm just going to have to learn to live with it... :|
> Of course that is purely presentation of the data, nothing to do with integrity
> of the data,

You are absolutely correct.

> therefore just as the order of rows returned from a query are undefined, unless
> explicitly ordered, so are the columns.

Indeed. "Unless explicitly ordered" is the key phrase. As you can "explicity order"
the rows in a query, it would be nice if you could "explicity order" the layout of your
table when altered.

> MySQL might be seen as having a good feature if it can manage the column
> ordering bit but imo it's fud, detracting from the real job of a DB.

You are correct. The job of the DB is to keep/hold/serve data. However, you can't
overlook the person managing that data. Especially when it comes to large(ish)
tables. It make managing the tables/data harder if you have to look all over the
place for the fields in a table. Unless you create a table to be 100% first time (and
that never happens), you will need to search all over the place. It is nice if you
can have all your date fields in one area, flag fields in another as opposed to 3
date fields in the middle of the table, 2 towards the end and another at the very
end.
If you (general "you") have added a bunch of fields to a table, go into phpPGAdmin,
pgAdmin II (or some other UI) and look at it. You'll see what I mean.

Again, this is something I could learn to live with. But after using mySQL for 4
years and adding tons of fields to various tables to incorporate new functionality,
let me tell you how nice it is to be able to place new fields where you want them
in your table.

Chris