tables in databses

[mebar3]

Hi,
I was wanting to know if any of the sql's mysql, postgre etc allow thier tables to expand dynamically. meaning that once the table is created once ie: with the 'create table' stuff, is there a way that columns can be added to the existing table without re-opening the file that contains the 'create table' and editing it to include another attribute column name.
Does this make sense?

thanks
marilyn

[mrhappiness]

with mysql you can use http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/ALTER_TABLE.html and postgre will provide you with something similar i guess

[mebar3]

im not sure how this workd could you explain?

ALTER [IGNORE] TABLE tbl_name
alter_specification [, alter_specification] ...

alter_specification:

[mrhappiness]

you read the examples at the page you have this text from?

[mebar3]

skimmed them, but i dont think this is what i want. This 'alter' piece of code must be written into the database tables definition files right? I want to be able to make database tables grow without having to open up files every time i want to insert a new column into a table, and manually type in alter...., then re-compile the database?

im not sure if this is even possible?

could you maybe create things like scripts to be able to interact with the database and alter tables from them automatically???

im not sure, i was nominated to find this answer!