prefer-text-field

problem#

Changing the size of a varchar field requires an ACCESS EXCLUSIVE lock, that will prevent all reads and writes to the table.

solution#

Use a text field with a CHECK CONSTRAINT makes it easier to change the max length. See the constraint-missing-not-valid rule.

Instead of:

CREATE TABLE "app_user" (
    "id" serial NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    "email" varchar(100) NOT NULL
);

Use:

CREATE TABLE "app_user" (
    "id" serial NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    "email" TEXT NOT NULL
);
ALTER TABLE "app_user" ADD CONSTRAINT "text_size" CHECK (LENGTH("email") <= 100);

solution for alembic and sqlalchemy#

Instead of:

# models.py
import sqlalchemy as sa

class User(BaseModel):
    email = sa.Column(sa.String(length=100))

Use:

# models.py
import sqlalchemy as sa

class User(BaseModel):
    __table_args__ = (sa.CheckConstraint('length("email") <= 100'),)
    email = sa.Column(sa.Text)