Rename Column — SQL Technical Interview Questions & Answers

Rename Column

Rename Column

  • MySQL 8: ALTER TABLE students RENAME COLUMN marks TO score; Older: ALTER TABLE students CHANGE marks score INT; CHANGE requires the type again — easy to mistype.
  • Rename in the app too. ORM field names will break if you only change SQL.
  • Trap: CHANGE with the wrong type and silently converting data.
  • On the example next to this theory: Rename Column — aLTER TABLE changes structure without rebuilding the whole table.

Technical Interview Tip: ALTER TABLE students RENAME COLUMN marks TO score;

Code Examples for Rename Column

Rename Column — sample query

CREATE TABLE items (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, title TEXT);
ALTER TABLE items ADD COLUMN price REAL DEFAULT 0;
INSERT INTO items (id, title, price) VALUES (1, 'Pen', 10);
SELECT * FROM items;

Rename Column — aLTER TABLE changes structure without rebuilding the whole table.

How to Explain Rename Column to an Interviewer

How do you rename a column in MySQL 8?

ALTER TABLE t RENAME COLUMN old TO new;