Adding `:null => false` column to a table containing records

rubyonrails-talk
1

In PostgreSQL, even without Rails migrations (pure SQL or use PgAdmin III), if you try to add a column with NOT NULL and set default to FALSE, you still get the same error. The workaround is to: 1. add the column without NOT NULL. 2. if necessary, UPDATE all rows to FALSE 3. alter the column to go NOT NULL

2

PostgreSQL in Rails 1.1.6 used to set the not null constraint before the default.

In Rails 1.2 and later, add_column performs these steps:

  1. alter table add column
  2. unless default is null: 3. change column default 4. if not null, update table set column=default
  3. if not null, alter table set not null

This should resolve the original poster’s issue if using PostgreSQL.

jeremy