Change Types

A Change Type is a database-independent XML, YAML, or JSON formatted change that you can specify to update your database with Liquibase. Change Types correspond to SQL statements applied to your database, such as CREATE TABLE. You specify the Change Type you want to use within a Changeset in your Changelog. It is a best practice to include only one Change Type per changeset. Doing so avoids failed auto-commit statements that can leave the database in an unexpected state.

This page lists all changes that you can apply to your database with the default Liquibase installation. You can also write your own changes through the extension system.

For a guide on using Change Types with Liquibase, see Migrating with Liquibase Change Types. If your changelogs are written in SQL, see Migrating with SQL. In SQL changelogs, database changes are written using raw SQL statements within changesets.

Notes

• Property values are string unless otherwise noted.
• Boolean parameters are defaulted to false unless otherwise noted.
• Some change types automatically create rollback statements when you run rollback commands. For more information, see Liquibase Rollback Workflow and Automatic and Custom Rollbacks.

Entities

Entity	Create/Add	Drop	Change
Table	createTable	dropTable	setTableRemarks renameTable
Column	addColumn	dropColumn	renameColumn modifyDataType setColumnRemarks addAutoIncrement
Index	createIndex	dropIndex
View	createView	dropView	renameView
Procedure	createProcedure	dropProcedure
Sequence	createSequence	dropSequence	renameSequence alterSequence
Function	createFunction	dropFunction
Package	createPackage createPackageBody	dropPackage dropPackageBody
Synonym	createSynonym	dropSynonym
Trigger	createTrigger enableTrigger	dropTrigger disableTrigger	renameTrigger

Constraints

Constraint	Add	Drop
Check	addCheckConstraint enableCheckConstraint	dropCheckConstraint disableCheckConstraint
Default value	addDefaultValue	dropDefaultValue
Foreign key	addForeignKeyConstraint	dropForeignKeyConstraint dropAllForeignKeyConstraints
Not null	addNotNullConstraint	dropNotNullConstraint
Primary key	addPrimaryKey	dropPrimaryKey
Unique key	addUniqueConstraint	dropUniqueConstraint

Data

• addLookupTable
• delete
• insert
• loadData
• loadUpdateData
• mergeColumns
• update

Miscellaneous

• customChange
• empty
• executeCommand
• markUnused
• output
• sql
• sqlFile
• stop
• tagDatabase

Other tags

• include
• includeAll
• modifyChangeSets

Related links

• Concepts
• Liquibase Commands
• Workflows