ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN and automatic COLUMNS list

Question

I am looking to add a new column to table using the suggestions provided here and here

In essence, I would like the (fields_in_orig_table) to be populated automatically, and not having to enter them manually (have many columns and this changes from table to table):

CREATE TABLE games_new LIKE games_orig;
ALTER TABLE games_new ADD COLUMN location varchar(256);
INSERT INTO games_new (fields_in_orig_table) SELECT * FROM games_orig;
RENAME TABLE games_orig TO games_old, games_new TO games_orig;
DROP TABLE games_old;

My thought goes around this:

CREATE TABLE games_new LIKE games_orig;
ALTER TABLE  games_new ADD COLUMN version varchar(256);
INSERT INTO  games_new 

          (SELECT CONCAT(GROUP_CONCAT(column_name ORDER BY ordinal_position 
           SEPARATOR " ,  "), " ") AS columns
           FROM information_schema.columns
           WHERE table_schema = 'games' AND table_name = 'games_orig' ) 

SELECT * FROM games_orig;
RENAME TABLE games_orig TO games_old, games_new TO games_orig;
DROP TABLE games_old;

This gives me syntax error (near the Select concat....).

The original syntax to get comma delimited column listings is:

SELECT CONCAT("'", GROUP_CONCAT(column_name ORDER BY ordinal_position SEPARATOR "', '"), "'") AS columns
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_schema = 'db_name' AND table_name = 'tbl_name'

In my query, I have removed the extra quotes, as I figure my query does not require quotes as part of the column listing.

What am I doing wrong here? Who could help, please?

Answer 1

INSERT INTO  games_new 

VALUES (SELECT CONCAT....

Answer 2

When inserting values in the table use INSERT INTO tablename VALUES (fields) instead of INSERT INTO tablename SET(fields) .

CREATE TABLE games_new LIKE games_orig;
ALTER TABLE  games_new ADD COLUMN version varchar(256);
INSERT INTO  games_new 
          VALUES
          (SELECT CONCAT(GROUP_CONCAT(column_name ORDER BY ordinal_position 
           SEPARATOR ' , '), ' ') AS columns
           FROM information_schema.columns
           WHERE table_schema = 'games' AND table_name = 'games_orig' ) 

SELECT * FROM games_orig;
RENAME TABLE games_orig TO games_old, games_new TO games_orig;
DROP TABLE games_old;

Answer 3

You haven't specified which column you want to insert into, because your nested query is returning only 1 value

INSERT INTO games_new (column_name_u_want_to_insert_value_into) 
SELECT   cast(concat(group_concat(column_name ORDER BY ordinal_position SEPARATOR " , "), " ") AS CHAR) AS columns
FROM     information_schema.columns 
WHERE    table_name = 'games_orig';

also, if you are running all the statements together, add semicolon(;) for the insert query as well