Can I do this with MYSQL

Databases
1

Hopefully I can explain this right.

Right now I have a Category column in my table. Well I am wanting to take the “Category” from varchar to ENUM so I can change the values easily.

Can I do that without losing any data?

What I have right now is the Category column has comments but the comments wont let me add anything in it.

You can see what I mean from the screenshot below.

2

my advice is to stay well clear of ENUM

i doubt you can make the change easily in any case

that’s not a mysql problem, though

VARCHAR can take anything :slight_smile:

i would check your application code

3

Ok, Much appreciated. Any ideas of how I can add like 3 more items to the comments? I can to a SQL Query but will that mess up the existing data?

4

i’m not sure i understand what you mean by “3 more items”

your category column can hold as many items as you can fit into 2000 characters

oh, wait a sec… you’re talking about the column comments!

column comments are strictly for documentation purposes

perhaps you could explain a bit more about the table that your category column is in, and how it is to be used?

5

I have a site where I add products through an admin panel. The “comments” are the categories that I use for a drop down. I need to add 3 more categories to that, But this is all I can see when I go to add it.

'Automation-Controls','Baggers','Bagger-Scales','Bins','Cappers','Case-Erectors','Carton-Formers','Check-Weighers','Complete-Lines','Confectionary-Equipment','Continuous-Mixers','Control-Panels','Conveyors','Cookie-Lines','Cooling-Tunnels','Cutting-Slitti
6

those are the comments of the category column, correct?

they have no bearing on what values the column can hold

what you should do is create a categories table, that has one row for every allowable category value

then tie this to your items table with a foreign key

7

I know this is a late reply, But is there any tutorial that will show me how to do that?

8 
CREATE TABLE categories
( category VARCHAR(937) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY
);

INSERT INTO categories VALUES
 ( 'Automation-Controls' ) 
,( 'Baggers' ) 
,( 'Bagger-Scales' ) 
,( 'Bins' ) 
,( 'Cappers' ) 
,( 'Case-Erectors' ) 
,( 'Carton-Formers' ) 
,( 'Check-Weighers' ) 
,( 'Complete-Lines' ) 
,( 'Confectionary-Equipment' ) 
,( 'Continuous-Mixers' ) 
,( 'Control-Panels' ) 
,( 'Conveyors' ) 
,( 'Cookie-Lines' ) 
,( 'Cooling-Tunnels' ) 
,( 'Cutting-Slitting ' )
;

ALTER TABLE new_equip
ADD CONSTRAINT cat_fk
    FOREIGN KEY ( category )
    REFERENCES categories ( category ) 
;
9

I appreciate that. My issue is I have everything going into one table. “new_equip” and in that table I have a column called Category and thats where all the categories are being stored. I have no clue how to edit it with using tables ad not messing up the site.

I have attached a screenshot to help it make more sense.

10

did you try running the code i gave you? what happened?