EN
PostgreSQL - add column to existing table
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In this article, we would like to show you how to add a column to an existing table in PostgreSQL.
Quick solution:
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ALTER TABLE "table_name"
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ADD "column_name" DATA_TYPE;
Note:
Go to the official documentation to see what you can use as
DATA_TYPE
.
To add columns to an existing table we use ALTER TABLE
statement.
To show how to add a column to an existing table using ALTER TABLE
statement, we will use the following table:

Note:
At the end of this article you can find database preparation SQL queries.
In this example, we will add email
column to the users
table.
Query:
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ALTER TABLE "users"
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ADD "email" VARCHAR(255);
Output (SELECT * FROM "users"
):

create_tables.sql
file:
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CREATE TABLE "users" (
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"id" SERIAL,
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"name" VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
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"surname" VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
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"department_id" INTEGER,
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"salary" DECIMAL(15,2) NOT NULL,
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PRIMARY KEY ("id")
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);
insert_data.sql
file:
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INSERT INTO "users"
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( "name", "surname", "department_id", "salary")
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VALUES
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('John', 'Stewart', 1, '3512.00'),
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('Chris', 'Brown', 2, '1344.00'),
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('Kate', 'Lewis', 3, '6574.00'),
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('Ailisa', 'Gomez', NULL, '6500.00'),
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('Gwendolyn', 'James', 2, '4200.00'),
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('Simon', 'Collins', 4, '3320.00'),
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('Taylor', 'Martin', 2, '1500.00'),
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('Andrew', 'Thompson', NULL, '2100.00');