Change type of varchar field to integer: "cannot be cast automatically to type integer"

Question

I have a small table and a certain field contains the type "character varying". I'm trying to change it to "Integer" but it gives an error that casting is not possible.

Is there a way around this or should I just create another table and bring the records into it using a query.

The field contains only integer values.

Answer 1

There is no implicit (automatic) cast from text or varchar to integer (i.e. you cannot pass a varchar to a function expecting integer or assign a varchar field to an integer one), so you must specify an explicit cast using ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN ... TYPE ... USING:

ALTER TABLE the_table ALTER COLUMN col_name TYPE integer USING (col_name::integer);

Note that you may have whitespace in your text fields; in that case, use:

ALTER TABLE the_table ALTER COLUMN col_name TYPE integer USING (trim(col_name)::integer);

to strip white space before converting.

This shoud've been obvious from an error message if the command was run in psql, but it's possible PgAdmin-III isn't showing you the full error. Here's what happens if I test it in psql on PostgreSQL 9.2:

=> CREATE TABLE test( x varchar );
CREATE TABLE
=> insert into test(x) values ('14'), (' 42  ');
INSERT 0 2
=> ALTER TABLE test ALTER COLUMN x TYPE integer;
ERROR:  column "x" cannot be cast automatically to type integer
HINT:  Specify a USING expression to perform the conversion. 
=> ALTER TABLE test ALTER COLUMN x TYPE integer USING (trim(x)::integer);
ALTER TABLE        

Thanks @muistooshort for adding the USING link.

See also this related question; it's about Rails migrations, but the underlying cause is the same and the answer applies.

If the error still occurs, then it may be related not to column values, but indexes over this column or column default values might fail typecast. Indexes need to be dropped before ALTER COLUMN and recreated after. Default values should be changed appropriately.