Question

I am trying to add a column into mysql table using this query but mysql is complaining about syntax. I have seen number of sources but I am unable to see whats wrong here.

mysql> ALTER TABLE dog add date TIMESTAMP(14); 

error:

ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that
corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '(14)'
 at line 1

table name ‘dog’, column name ‘date’

Answer 1

DATE is a special word in MySQL, so you’ll need to put backticks around it:

mysql> ALTER TABLE dog add `date` TIMESTAMP;