Update Column

Modify existing column properties, constraints, and type-specific settings without losing data.

update()

Update an existing column's properties.

client.columns.update(tableName: string, columnName: string, updates: ColumnUpdateRequest): Promise<BolticSuccessResponse<ColumnDetails> | BolticErrorResponse>

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
tableName	string	✅	Name of the target table
columnName	string	✅	Name of the column to update
updates	ColumnUpdateRequest	✅	Properties to update

ColumnUpdateRequest Properties

Property	Type	Description
description	string	Update column description
is_nullable	boolean	Change nullable constraint
is_indexed	boolean	Add/remove database index
is_visible	boolean	Show/hide column in UI
default_value	any	Update default value for new records
Type-specific properties	Various	Based on column type

Basic Property Updates

Update Description

const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("products", "title", {
    description: "Updated product title with enhanced validation",
});

if (!error) {
    console.log("Description updated:", data.description);
}

Add/Remove Constraints

// Add constraints
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("users", "email", {
    is_unique: true,
    is_indexed: true,
    description: "Unique email address with index for fast lookups",
});

// Remove constraints
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("products", "description", {
    is_indexed: false,
    description: "Product description (index removed for performance)",
});

Update Default Values

// Set default value
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("products", "is_active", {
    default_value: true,
    description: "Products are active by default",
});

// Remove default value
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("users", "bio", {
    default_value: null,
    description: "User biography (no default)",
});

Type-Specific Updates

Currency Field Updates

// Change currency format
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("products", "price", {
    currency_format: "EUR",
    description: "Price in Euros (changed from USD)",
});

// Update decimal precision
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("products", "price", {
    decimals: "0.000",
    description: "Price with 3 decimal places for precision",
});

// Update both currency and decimals
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("products", "price", {
    currency_format: "GBP",
    decimals: "0.00",
    default_value: 0.0,
    description: "Price in British Pounds with 2 decimal places",
});

Phone Number Field Updates

// Change phone format
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("users", "phone", {
    phone_format: "+91 123 456 7890",
    description: "India phone number format",
});

// Update to US format
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("contacts", "mobile", {
    phone_format: "+1 (123) 456-7890",
    description: "US phone number format with parentheses",
});

// International format
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("customers", "phone", {
    phone_format: "(123) 456-7890",
    description: "International phone number format",
});

Dropdown Field Updates

// Update dropdown options
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("products", "category", {
    selectable_items: ["Electronics", "Clothing", "Books", "Home & Garden", "Sports & Outdoors"],
    description: "Expanded product categories",
});

// Change from single to multiple selection
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("posts", "tags", {
    multiple_selections: true,
    description: "Allow multiple tags per post",
});

// Update default selection
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("tickets", "priority", {
    selectable_items: ["Low", "Medium", "High", "Critical"],
    default_value: "Medium",
    description: "Ticket priority with Medium as default",
});

Date-Time Field Updates

// Update date format
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("logs", "created_at", {
    date_format: "%d/%m/%y",
    description: "European date format (day/month/year)",
});

// Update time format
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("appointments", "start_time", {
    time_format: "%I:%M %p",
    description: "12-hour time format with AM/PM",
});

Number Field Updates

// Change decimal precision
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("measurements", "weight", {
    decimals: "0.000",
    description: "Weight with 3 decimal precision for accuracy",
});

// Add validation range (if supported)
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("ratings", "score", {
    decimals: "0.0",
    default_value: 5.0,
    description: "Rating score from 1.0 to 10.0",
});

Vector Field Updates

// Update vector dimensions (requires data migration)
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("documents", "embeddings", {
    vector_dimension: 768, // Changing from 1536 to 768
    description: "Reduced dimension embeddings for efficiency",
});

// Add index for similarity search
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("images", "features", {
    is_indexed: true,
    description: "Image feature vectors with similarity search index",
});

Data Type Conversion

You can change a column's data type to compatible types. The system validates existing data and converts it according to the target type's format.

Supported Type Conversions

From Type	Can Convert To
text	email, long-text, date-time, number, currency, checkbox, phone-number, link, json, vector, sparsevec, halfvec
email	text, long-text, date-time, number, currency, checkbox, phone-number, link, json, vector, sparsevec, halfvec
long-text	text, email, date-time, number, currency, checkbox, phone-number, link, json, vector, sparsevec, halfvec
date-time	text, email, long-text, phone-number, link
number	text, email, long-text, currency, phone-number, link
currency	text, email, long-text, number, phone-number, link
checkbox	text, email, long-text, phone-number, link
dropdown	(No conversions allowed)
phone-number	text, email, long-text, date-time, number, currency, checkbox, link, json, vector, sparsevec, halfvec
link	text, email, long-text, number, currency, checkbox, phone-number, json, vector, sparsevec, halfvec
json	text, email, long-text, phone-number, link
vector	text, email, long-text, phone-number, link, halfvec, sparsevec, vector
sparsevec	text, email, long-text, phone-number, link, vector, halfvec, sparsevec
halfvec	text, email, long-text, phone-number, link, vector, sparsevec, halfvec

Common Type Conversions

Convert Text to Email

// Convert a text field to email with validation
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("users", "contact_info", {
    type: "email",
    is_unique: true,
    is_indexed: true,
    description: "User email address (converted from text)",
});

Convert Number to Currency

// Convert number field to currency format
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("products", "price_value", {
    type: "currency",
    currency_format: "USD",
    decimals: "0.00",
    description: "Product price in USD (converted from number)",
});

Convert Text to JSON

// Convert text field to structured JSON
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("orders", "metadata", {
    type: "json",
    description: "Order metadata as JSON (converted from text)",
});

Convert Text to Vector

// Convert text to vector for embeddings
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("documents", "content", {
    type: "vector",
    vector_dimension: 1536,
    description: "Document embeddings (converted from text)",
});

Vector Type Conversions

// Convert between vector types
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("embeddings", "features", {
    type: "halfvec", // More memory-efficient
    vector_dimension: 768,
    description: "Half-precision embeddings for efficiency",
});

Conversion Considerations

Data Validation

// When converting to email, existing data must be valid emails
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("contacts", "email_text", {
    type: "email",
    description: "Contact email (validates existing data)",
});

if (error) {
    // Handle validation errors for existing data
    console.error("Conversion failed:", error.message);
    // Example: "Row 15: 'invalid-email' is not a valid email address"
}

Type-Specific Properties

// When converting to currency, set currency-specific properties
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("invoices", "amount", {
    type: "currency",
    currency_format: "EUR",
    decimals: "0.00",
    default_value: 0.0,
    description: "Invoice amount in Euros",
});

Vector Dimension Changes

// Changing vector dimensions requires compatible data
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("models", "embeddings", {
    type: "vector",
    vector_dimension: 512, // Changed from 1536
    description: "Reduced dimension embeddings",
});

// Note: Existing vectors must be compatible with new dimensions

Conversion Restrictions

Some conversions are not allowed to prevent data loss:

// ❌ Cannot convert dropdown to other types
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("products", "category", {
    type: "text", // This will fail
});

// ❌ Cannot convert button to other types
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("actions", "submit_btn", {
    type: "text", // This will fail
});

Safe Conversion Practices

Pre-conversion Validation

// 1. Check data compatibility before conversion
const { data: column } = await client.columns.get("users", "signup_date");

// 2. Perform conversion with error handling
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("users", "signup_date", {
    type: "date-time",
    date_format: "%Y-%m-%d",
    time_format: "%H:%M:%S",
    description: "User signup timestamp (converted from text)",
});

if (error) {
    console.error("Conversion failed:", error.meta);
    // Handle conversion errors appropriately
}

Gradual Migration

// For complex conversions, consider creating a new column first
await client.columns.create("users", {
    name: "email_new",
    type: "email",
    is_nullable: true,
    description: "New email column for migration",
});

// Migrate data programmatically, then rename columns if needed

Constraint Management

Making Columns Non-Nullable

// First set a default value, then make non-nullable
await client.columns.update("users", "status", {
    default_value: "active",
});

// Then make it non-nullable
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("users", "status", {
    is_nullable: false,
    description: "User status (required field with default)",
});

Adding Unique Constraints

// Ensure data uniqueness before adding constraint
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("products", "sku", {
    is_unique: true,
    is_indexed: true, // Unique columns are automatically indexed
    description: "Unique product SKU identifier",
});

Index Management

// Add index for performance
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("orders", "customer_id", {
    is_indexed: true,
    description: "Customer ID with index for fast lookups",
});

// Remove index to save space
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("logs", "debug_info", {
    is_indexed: false,
    description: "Debug information (index removed)",
});

Common Update Patterns

Schema Evolution

// Evolve a basic text field to email with validation
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("users", "contact", {
    type: "email", // Type conversion (if supported)
    is_unique: true,
    is_indexed: true,
    description: "User email address (converted from text)",
});

Performance Optimization

// Add indexes to frequently queried columns
const columnsToIndex = ["category", "status", "created_date"];

for (const columnName of columnsToIndex) {
    await client.columns.update("products", columnName, {
        is_indexed: true,
        description: `${columnName} with performance index`,
    });
}

Data Quality Improvements

// Add constraints to improve data quality
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("users", "email", {
    is_unique: true,
    is_nullable: false,
    is_indexed: true,
    description: "Required unique email address",
});

Internationalization Updates

// Update for different locales
const { data, error } = await client.columns.update("orders", "order_date", {
    date_format: "%d/%m/%Y",
    time_format: "%H:%M:%S",
    description: "Order date in UK format and timezone",
});

Response Format

{
  id: "26b364ef-0401-49b2-aae3-ebe43ae14eca",
  table_id: "83c6b498-9157-483c-b872-662298ec2c38",
  name: "title",
  field_order: 1,
  type: "text",
  alignment: "left",
  description: "Product title",
  default_value: null,
  is_primary_key: false,
  is_unique: true,
  is_nullable: false,
  is_indexed: true,
  is_visible: true,
  is_readonly: false,
  decimals: null,
  timezone: null,
  selection_source: null,
  selectable_items: [],
  multiple_selections: false,
  phone_format: null,
  date_format: null,
  time_format: null,
  currency_format: null,
  vector_dimension: null,
  created_at: '2025-08-19T09:51:12.568Z',
  updated_at: '2025-08-19T09:51:18.026Z',
  created_by: '[email protected]',
  updated_by: '[email protected]',
}

Performance Impact

Index Operations

// Adding an index - can be slow on large tables
await client.columns.update("large_table", "search_field", {
    is_indexed: true,
    description: "Added index for search performance",
});

// Removing an index - usually fast
await client.columns.update("large_table", "unused_field", {
    is_indexed: false,
    description: "Removed unused index",
});

Constraint Changes

// Adding constraints - may require full table scan
await client.columns.update("users", "email", {
    is_unique: true, // Validates all existing values
    is_nullable: false, // Checks for null values
});