Change the maximum length of a field

By jfha73 on 15 May 2014 at 15:14 UTC

Hey guys,

I created a content type with a text field that now I have to change the maximum length for, how can I do this if the content type already has records on it and it's telling me this cannot be changed when it already has records?

Thanks.

Comments

Backup, delete, change, restore

drupalshrek commented 15 May 2014 at 15:47

I don't think there is a simple way.

One way which I suppose should work: backup database, delete records, change field size, reimport data (not structure) from backup.

drupalshrek

I did, but it still shows the

jfha73 commented 27 May 2014 at 16:25

I did, but it still shows the wrong value, I also looked in the database for the content typy where it is, but I can't find it, can anybody tell me where Drupal 7 stores this info (content types) in the database? so I can check if this is there?

Thanks,

=-=

VM commented 27 May 2014 at 18:35

node types are stored in the node types table - non core fields are stored in their own tables.

I found the table, but there

jfha73 commented 28 May 2014 at 20:32

I found the table, but there is nothing on it that says field lengths, so I'm back to square 1, so if the table for the field in the database has the right size on it, how can I make my content type to show/allow this size, not the previous size?

Thanks,

=-=

VM commented 28 May 2014 at 21:09

http://drupal.stackexchange.com/questions/8829/how-to-change-the-length-...

THANKS A MILLION, that worked

jfha73 commented 29 May 2014 at 14:09

THANKS A MILLION, that worked.

Worked or not?

stergueaw commented 23 October 2017 at 11:57

this worked out for you successfully http://drupal.stackexchange.com/questions/8829/how-to-change-the-length-... ?

A work around

nitin.k commented 28 May 2016 at 08:13

Install devel, go to URL(http://sitename/devel/php) and run the code in text editor.


<?php

/**
  * Changes the field maximum length.
  */

// Provide field name and length for the field.
$field_name = "field_url_text";
$new_length = 500;  


$field_table = 'field_data_' . $field_name;
$field_revision_table = 'field_revision_' . $field_name;
$field_column = $field_name . '_value';
 
  // Alter value field length in fields table
  db_query("ALTER TABLE `{$field_table}` CHANGE `{$field_column}` `{$field_column}` VARCHAR( {$new_length} )");
  // Alter value field length in fields revision table
  db_query("ALTER TABLE `{$field_revision_table}` CHANGE `{$field_column}` `{$field_column}` VARCHAR( {$new_length} )");
 
  // Update field config with new max length
  $result = db_query("SELECT CAST(`data` AS CHAR(10000) CHARACTER SET utf8) FROM `field_config` WHERE field_name = '{$field_name}'");
  $config = $result->fetchField();
  $config_array = unserialize($config);
  $config_array['settings']['max_length'] = $new_length;
  $config = serialize($config_array);
  db_update('field_config')
    ->fields(array('data' => $config))
    ->condition('field_name', $field_name)
    ->execute();
?>