ALTER TYPE

Modifies an existing user-defined type (UDT).

Restriction: Modifying UDTs used in primary keys or index columns is not supported. Changing the field type is not supported.

Synopsis

ALTER TYPE <field_name>
  ( ADD <field_name> <cql_datatype>
  | RENAME <field_name> TO <<<new_field_name> [ AND <field_name> TO <new_field_name> ...] ) ;

Syntax legend

Legend
Syntax conventions	Description
UPPERCASE	Literal keyword.
Lowercase	Not literal.
`< >`	Variable value. Replace with a user-defined value.
`[]`	Optional. Square brackets (`[]`) surround optional command arguments. Do not type the square brackets.
`( )`	Group. Parentheses ( `( )` ) identify a group to choose from. Do not type the parentheses.
`\|`	Or. A vertical bar (`\|`) separates alternative elements. Type any one of the elements. Do not type the vertical bar.
`...`	Repeatable. An ellipsis ( `...` ) indicates that you can repeat the syntax element as often as required.
`'<Literal string>'`	Single quotation (`'`) marks must surround literal strings in CQL statements. Use single quotation marks to preserve upper case.
`{ <key> : <value> }`	Map collection. Braces (`{ }`) enclose map collections or key value pairs. A colon separates the key and the value.
`<datatype2`	Set, list, map, or tuple. Angle brackets ( `< >` ) enclose data types in a set, list, map, or tuple. Separate the data types with a comma.
`<cql_statement>;`	End CQL statement. A semicolon (`;`) terminates all CQL statements.
`[--]`	Separate the command line options from the command arguments with two hyphens ( `--` ). This syntax is useful when arguments might be mistaken for command line options.
`' <<schema\> ... </schema\>> '`	Search CQL only: Single quotation marks (`'`) surround an entire XML schema declaration.
`@<xml_entity>='<xml_entity_type>'`	Search CQL only: Identify the entity and literal value to overwrite the XML element in the schema and solrConfig files.

ADD (<field_name> <cql_datatype>): Add field by entering a field name followed by the data type; the values for existing row is set to null. To add multiple fields, use a separate ALTER TYPE command for each field.
RENAME <field_name> TO <new_field_name>: Enter the old name and new name of the field.
AND: Use between clauses to make multiple changes.

Examples

Adding a field

To add a new field to a user-defined type, use ALTER TYPE and the ADD keyword. For existing UDTs, the field value is null.

ALTER TYPE cycling.fullname
ADD middlename text;

Changing a field name

To change the name of a field in a user-defined type, use the RENAME old_name TO new_name syntax. Rename multiple fields by separating the directives with AND.

Rename the fields in the cycling.fullname UDT.

ALTER TYPE cycling.fullname
RENAME middlename TO middle
  AND lastname TO last
  AND firstname TO first;

Verify the changes using describe:

DESCRIBE TYPE cycling.fullname;

The new field names appear in the description.

WARNING: cqlsh was built against 5.0-beta1, but this server is 5.0.  All features may not work!

CREATE TYPE cycling.fullname (
    first text,
    last text,
    middle text
);

ALTER TYPE

Synopsis

Examples

Adding a field

Changing a field name

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