The Vertica Database Forums

Here is a great post by a even greater guy that discusses this topic a little more ...

http://proplabs.org/2012/05/04/vertica- ... le-column/

Hi, Jim.

I'm afraid is not the end .
You didn't investigate a case with prejoin-projections Its a long story and bad idea (imho) modify column data type on production system (there are may be segments, buddy/prejoin-projections).

Great news, Vertica 6.0 gives us the ability to change a table column's data type...

Here's an excerpt from the New Feature's Guide:

Using new parameters in the ALTER TABLE statement, you can now perform the following operations:

• Change, reorganize, and remove tble partitions
  Add table columns with a default derived expression
  Drop table columns
  Change a column's data type
  Rename a table or sequence owner

Wow .. Really a very good news..

Thank you jim.