Sql-server – TSQL change column constraint between null and not null

What version of mysql is this?

What mode are you running in?

SELECT @@GLOBAL.SQL_MODE, @@SESSION.SQL_MODE;

(This should be run in the context of your application, just in case it is changing it).

MySQL is documented thus: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/data-type-defaults.html

As of MySQL 5.0.2, if a column definition includes no explicit DEFAULT value, MySQL determines the default value as follows:

If the column can take NULL as a value, the column is defined with an explicit DEFAULT NULL clause. This is the same as before 5.0.2.

If the column cannot take NULL as the value, MySQL defines the column with no explicit DEFAULT clause. For data entry, if an INSERT or REPLACE statement includes no value for
the column, MySQL handles the column according to the SQL mode in effect at the time:

If strict SQL mode is not enabled, MySQL sets the column to the implicit default value for the column data type. 

My own testing fails to duplicate your issue

mysql> CREATE TABLE `my_table` (
    ->   `entry_id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
    ->   `address` varchar(512) NOT NULL,
    ->   `follow_up_to` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
    ->   PRIMARY KEY (`entry_id`),
    ->   KEY `follow_up_to` (`follow_up_to`)
    -> ) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=536 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected, 2 warnings (0.16 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (NULL, NULL, NULL);
ERROR 1048 (23000): Column 'address' cannot be null
mysql> INSERT INTO my_table (follow_up_to) VALUES (NULL);
Query OK, 1 row affected, 1 warning (0.10 sec)

mysql> SHOW WARNINGS;
+---------+------+----------------------------------------------+
| Level   | Code | Message                                      |
+---------+------+----------------------------------------------+
| Warning | 1364 | Field 'address' doesn't have a default value |
+---------+------+----------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM my_table;
+----------+---------+--------------+
| entry_id | address | follow_up_to |
+----------+---------+--------------+
|      537 |         |         NULL |
+----------+---------+--------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

The fact the old data had nulls shouldn't matter. The Alter table should have 'truncated' the nulls into empty strings

mysql> SHOW CREATE TABLE my_table\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
       Table: my_table
Create Table: CREATE TABLE `my_table` (
  `entry_id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `address` varchar(512) NOT NULL,
  `follow_up_to` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`entry_id`),
  KEY `follow_up_to` (`follow_up_to`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=536 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
1 row in set (0.04 sec)

mysql> ALTER TABLE my_table MODIFY address VARCHAR(512) NULL DEFAULT NULL;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.76 sec)
Records: 1  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (NULL, NULL, NULL), (NULL, NULL, NULL);
Query OK, 2 rows affected (0.05 sec)
Records: 2  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> SELECT * FROM my_table;
+----------+---------+--------------+
| entry_id | address | follow_up_to |
+----------+---------+--------------+
|      535 |         |         NULL |
|      536 | NULL    |         NULL |
|      537 | NULL    |         NULL |
+----------+---------+--------------+
3 rows in set (0.04 sec)

mysql> ALTER TABLE my_table MODIFY address VARCHAR(512) NOT NULL;
Query OK, 3 rows affected, 2 warnings (0.83 sec)
Records: 3  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 2

mysql> SHOW WARNINGS;
+---------+------+----------------------------------------------+
| Level   | Code | Message                                      |
+---------+------+----------------------------------------------+
| Warning | 1265 | Data truncated for column 'address' at row 2 |
| Warning | 1265 | Data truncated for column 'address' at row 3 |
+---------+------+----------------------------------------------+
2 rows in set (0.04 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM my_table;
+----------+---------+--------------+
| entry_id | address | follow_up_to |
+----------+---------+--------------+
|      535 |         |         NULL |
|      536 |         |         NULL |
|      537 |         |         NULL |
+----------+---------+--------------+
3 rows in set (0.04 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (NULL, NULL, NULL), (NULL, NULL, NULL);
Query OK, 2 rows affected, 2 warnings (0.08 sec)
Records: 2  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 2

mysql> SELECT * FROM my_table;
+----------+---------+--------------+
| entry_id | address | follow_up_to |
+----------+---------+--------------+
|      535 |         |         NULL |
|      536 |         |         NULL |
|      537 |         |         NULL |
|      538 |         |         NULL |
|      539 |         |         NULL |
+----------+---------+--------------+
5 rows in set (0.05 sec)

@ypercube's answer does manage this partially as a metadata only change.

Adding the constraint with NOCHECK means that no rows will need to be read to verify it, and if you are starting from a position where the column does not contain NULL values (and if you know none will be added between checking and adding the constraint) then, as the constraint prevents NULL values being created from future INSERT or UPDATE operations, this will work.

Adding the constraint can still have an impact on concurrent transactions however. The ALTER TABLE will need to acquire a Sch-M lock first. Whilst it is waiting for this all other table accesses will be blocked as described here.

Once the Sch-M lock is acquired the operation should be pretty quick however.

One problem with this is that even if you know the column in fact has no NULLs the constraint is not trusted by the query optimiser which means that the plans can be sub optimal.

CREATE TABLE T (X INT NULL)

INSERT INTO T 
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY @@SPID)
FROM master..spt_values

ALTER TABLE T WITH NOCHECK
  ADD  CONSTRAINT X_NOT_NULL 
    CHECK (X IS NOT NULL) ; 

SELECT *
FROM T 
WHERE X NOT IN (SELECT X FROM T)

Compare this with the simpler

ALTER TABLE T ALTER COLUMN X INT NOT NULL

SELECT *
FROM T 
WHERE X NOT IN (SELECT X FROM T)

One possible problem you might encounter with altering the column definition in this way is that it not only needs to read all the rows to verify that they meet the condition but also can end up actually performing logged updates to the rows.

A possible half way house might be to add the check constraint WITH CHECK. This will be slower than WITH NOCHECK as it needs to read all rows but it does allow the query optimiser to give the simpler plan in the query above and it should avoid the possible logged updates issue.