Swap columns in PostgreSQL

Swapping SQL table columns is part of the standard repertoire with MySQL - this is not (yet) supported with PostgreSQL. Although the official wiki devotes its own article to the problem, it does not show any practical solution that also supports views, indices and triggers. The following class does this job (for both MySQL and PostgreSQL) either on the command line - or alternatively directly in Laravel 5.


<?php
namespace App\Helpers;
class ColumnChanger
{

	public static $quotes;

	public static $path;

	public static function swap($table, $col1, $col2)
	{

		// initialize

		self::$quotes = self::getQuotes();
		self::$path = self::getPath();

		// export

		$content = self::exportDB();

		// swap

		$content = self::swapNow($table, $col1, $col2, $content);

		// import

		self::importDB($content);
	}

	public static function getQuotes()
	{
		if (getenv("DB_CONNECTION") == "pgsql")
		{
			return "";
		}

		if (getenv("DB_CONNECTION") == "mysql")
		{
			return "`";
		}
	}

	public static function getPath()
	{
		if (getenv("DB_CONNECTION") == "pgsql")
		{
			$sql = new \PDO('pgsql:host=' . getenv('DB_HOST') . ';port=' . getenv('DB_PORT') . ';dbname=' . getenv('DB_DATABASE') , getenv('DB_USERNAME') , getenv('DB_PASSWORD'));
			$stmt = $sql->prepare("SHOW data_directory");
			$stmt->execute();
			$path = str_replace("data", "bin", $stmt->fetchObject()->data_directory) . "/";
		}

		if (getenv("DB_CONNECTION") == "mysql")
		{
			$sql = new \PDO('mysql:host=' . getenv('DB_HOST') . ';port=' . getenv('DB_PORT') . ';dbname=' . getenv('DB_DATABASE') , getenv('DB_USERNAME') , getenv('DB_PASSWORD'));
			$stmt = $sql->prepare("SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'basedir'");
			$stmt->execute();
			$path = $stmt->fetchObject()->Value . "bin/";
		}

		return $path;
	}

	public static function exportDB()
	{
		if (getenv("DB_CONNECTION") == "pgsql")
		{
			putenv("PGPASSWORD=" . getenv('DB_PASSWORD'));
			exec('"' . self::$path . 'pg_dump" --clean --inserts -h ' . getenv('DB_HOST') . ' -p ' . getenv('DB_PORT') . ' -U ' . getenv('DB_USERNAME') . ' ' . getenv('DB_DATABASE') . ' > db.sql');
		}

		if (getenv("DB_CONNECTION") == "mysql")
		{
			exec('"' . self::$path . 'mysqldump" -h ' . getenv('DB_HOST') . ' --port ' . getenv('DB_PORT') . ' -u ' . getenv('DB_USERNAME') . ' -p"' . getenv('DB_PASSWORD') . '" ' . getenv('DB_DATABASE') . ' > db.sql');
		}

		return file_get_contents("db.sql");
	}

	public static function importDB($content)
	{
		file_put_contents("db.sql", $content);
		if (getenv("DB_CONNECTION") == "pgsql")
		{
			putenv("PGPASSWORD=" . getenv('DB_PASSWORD'));
			exec('"' . self::$path . 'psql" -h ' . getenv('DB_HOST') . ' -p ' . getenv('DB_PORT') . ' -U ' . getenv('DB_USERNAME') . ' -d ' . getenv('DB_DATABASE') . ' -1 -f db.sql');
		}

		if (getenv("DB_CONNECTION") == "mysql")
		{
			exec('"' . self::$path . 'mysql" -h ' . getenv('DB_HOST') . ' --port ' . getenv('DB_PORT') . ' -u ' . getenv('DB_USERNAME') . ' -p"' . getenv('DB_PASSWORD') . '" ' . getenv('DB_DATABASE') . ' --default-character-set=utf8 < db.sql');
		}

		unlink("db.sql");
	}

	public static function getPositions($haystack, $needle)
	{
		$positions = [];
		$lastPos = 0;
		while (($lastPos = strpos($haystack, $needle, $lastPos)) !== false)
		{
			$positions[] = $lastPos;
			$lastPos = $lastPos + strlen($needle);
		}

		return $positions;
	}

	public static function getEnd($content, $begin)
	{
		$end = $begin;
		$outside = true;
		while ($outside !== true || $content[$end] != ";")
		{
			if ($content[$end] == "'")
			{
				if ($end === 0 || $content[$end - 1] != "\\")
				{
					$outside = !$outside;
				}
			}

			$end++;
		}

		return ++$end;
	}

	public static function splitString($string)
	{
		return preg_split('/(?<!^)(?!$)/u', $string);
	}

	public static function getColumns($query)
	{
		$i = 0;
		$outside = true;
		$query = self::splitString($query);
		foreach($query as $i => $char)
		{
			if ($query[$i] == "'")
			{
				if ($i === 0 || $query[$i - 1] != "\\")
				{
					$outside = !$outside;
				}
			}

			if ($outside === true && $query[$i] == ",")
			{
				$query[$i] = "♥";
			}

			$i++;
		}

		$query = implode("", $query);
		$cols = explode("♥", $query);
		return $cols;
	}

	public static function swapNow($table, $col1, $col2, $content)
	{

		// loop through relevant statements

		foreach(["CREATE TABLE " . self::$quotes . $table . self::$quotes, "INSERT INTO " . self::$quotes . $table . self::$quotes] as $skey => $statement)
		{
			$positions = self::getPositions($content, $statement);
			foreach($positions as $position)
			{
				$begin = $position;
				$end = self::getEnd($content, $begin);
				$query_all = substr($content, $begin, $end - $begin);
				$query_inside = substr($query_all, strpos($query_all, "(") + 1, strrpos($query_all, ")") - strpos($query_all, "(") - 1);

				// get columns

				$cols = self::getColumns($query_inside);

				// get relevant column indexes

				if ($skey == 0)
				{
					$col1pos = 0;
					$col2pos = 0;
					foreach($cols as $pos => $col)
					{
						$col = trim($col);
						if (strpos($col, self::$quotes . $col1 . self::$quotes) === 0)
						{
							$col1pos = $pos;
						}

						if (strpos($col, self::$quotes . $col2 . self::$quotes) === 0)
						{
							$col2pos = $pos;
						}
					}
				}

				// swap columns

				$tmp = $cols[$col1pos];
				$cols[$col1pos] = $cols[$col2pos];
				$cols[$col2pos] = $tmp;
				$query_inside_new = implode(",", $cols);

				// insert query into content

				$query_all_new = str_replace($query_inside, $query_inside_new, $query_all);
				$content = str_replace($query_all, $query_all_new, $content);
			}
		}

		return $content;
	}
}

// usage from the command line

if (isset($argv) && is_array($argv))
{
	$args = [];
	foreach($argv as $key => $arg)
	{
		switch ($arg)
		{
		case "-e":
			$args["engine"] = $argv[$key + 1];
			break;

		case "-h":
			$args["hostname"] = $argv[$key + 1];
			break;

		case "-P":
			$args["port"] = $argv[$key + 1];
			break;

		case "-u":
			$args["username"] = $argv[$key + 1];
			break;

		case "-p":
			$args["password"] = $argv[$key + 1];
			break;

		case "-d":
			$args["database"] = $argv[$key + 1];
			break;

		case "-t":
			$args["table"] = $argv[$key + 1];
			break;
		}
	}

	// set default values

	if (!isset($args["hostname"]))
	{
		$args["hostname"] = "127.0.0.1";
	}

	if (!isset($args["port"]) && isset($args["engine"]) && $args["engine"] == "mysql")
	{
		$args["port"] = "3306";
	}

	if (!isset($args["port"]) && isset($args["engine"]) && $args["engine"] == "pgsql")
	{
		$args["port"] = "5432";
	}

	foreach($args as $option => $arg)
	{
		if (!isset($arg))
		{
			die('missing option ' . $option);
		}
	}

	if (count($argv) < 2)
	{
		die('error');
	}

	$args["col1"] = $argv[count($argv) - 2];
	$args["col2"] = $argv[count($argv) - 1];
	putenv("DB_CONNECTION=" . $args["engine"]);
	putenv("DB_HOST=" . $args["hostname"]);
	putenv("DB_PORT=" . $args["port"]);
	putenv("DB_DATABASE=" . $args["database"]);
	putenv("DB_USERNAME=" . $args["username"]);
	putenv("DB_PASSWORD=" . $args["password"]);
	ColumnChanger::swap($args["table"], $args["col1"], $args["col2"]);
	
}

The call on the command line is self-explanatory:

php ColumnChanger.php -e pgsql -h 127.0.0.1 -P 5432 -u username -p password -d database -t table col1 col2
php ColumnChanger.php -e mysql -h 127.0.0.1 -P 3306 -u username -p password -d database -t table col1 col2

The integration into Laravel 5 is also done quickly by simply copying ColumnChanger.php into the app/Helpers folder, so you can swap columns directly within Migrations :

<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;

class SwitchColumns extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function up()
    {
        App\Helpers\ColumnChanger::swap("users","email","password");
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        App\Helpers\ColumnChanger::swap("users","password","email");
    }
}
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