Trying to add an Array Column to existing Postgres table

Question

Why doesn't this command work?

ALTER TABLE candidate ADD COLUMN blocked_companies ARRAY;

I would appreciate if people would explain why a question receives a negative point. Would help future participation. — Suraj Kapoor
– Suraj Kapoor, Commented Nov 14, 2014 at 17:23

user330315 · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-14 15:23:09Z

57

You need to specify a datatype. If you want an array of strings, use text:

ALTER TABLE candidate ADD COLUMN blocked_companies text[];

if you want an array of numbers, use int:

ALTER TABLE candidate ADD COLUMN blocked_companies int[];

More details can be found in the manual:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/arrays.html#ARRAYS-DECLARATION

But in most cases using arrays is not such a good idea (despite Postgres' awesome array support). A properly normalized model might work better for your.

answered Nov 14, 2014 at 15:23

user330315

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2 Comments

Suraj Kapoor Over a year ago

Thanks very much for this, I'll give it a shot. Why are using arrays not a good idea?

user330315 Over a year ago

@SurajKapoor: because multiple values in a single column violate the normalization principle.

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