John Davidson

Message:

I have an existing database and I have now decided to use Red Bean. One of the requirements is that column names have to be lowercase and not contain any special characters.

This means I have 1,500+ column names to change

For example, Client_ID needs to change to clientid

What is the most efficient way to achieve this with a large number of columns?

My initial thoughts are

• run a query to gather existing column names from information_schema


• convert the column name to lowercase and strip out special characters


• run a query to update these columns

Is there a more efficient method?

---

My Answer:
Your initial thoughts are on the right track. Here is a step-by-step approach to efficiently change a large number of column names in MySQL:

1. Run a query to gather existing column names from information_schema:

sql
SELECT table_name, column_name
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_schema = 'your_database_name';


2. Iterate through the result set and generate the SQL queries to update the column names:

php
// Assuming you have fetched the column names into an array $columns
foreach ($columns as $column) {
$oldColumnName = $column['column_name'];
$newColumnName = strtolower(preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9_]/', '', $oldColumnName)); // Strip out special characters

$tableName = $column['table_name'];

$sql = "ALTER TABLE $tableName CHANGE $oldColumnName $newColumnName ;"; // Replace with the actual column definition

// Execute the SQL query to update the column name
}


3. Execute the generated SQL queries to update the column names.

This approach will efficiently change a large number of column names in your MySQL database. Make sure to backup your database before making any changes.