International Business Machines Corporation
AUTOMATICALLY UPDATING COLUMN DATA TYPE

Abstract:

An approach is provided for automatically updating a data type of a database column. Based on a database definition, category, and usage, the column is determined to be a candidate for a data type change. For first values in the column values, costs of processing queries using a new data type are determined to be less than other costs of processing the queries using other data types. For exception value(s) in the column values, costs of processing the queries using the original data type are determined to be less than other costs of processing the queries using other data types. The original data type is replaced with the new data type for the first values and the original data type is retained for the exception value(s). The first values are associated with a first schema and the exception value(s) are associated with a second schema.