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Run Liquibase against the H2 sandbox

Last updated: August 7, 2026

This tutorial is intended for developers setting up Liquibase for the first time. It walks you through installing Liquibase and exploring its basic functionality using the built-in sandbox. The sandbox includes a packaged H2 database and pre-made changelog files so you can practice running Liquibase commands immediately.

Add a Changeset to the Changelog

Now that you have set up your Liquibase example project, you can set add a changeset to the changelog.

Procedure

Using a text editor open the example-changelog file and add the following changeset to the end of the file.

--changeset your.name:4
ALTER  TABLE  person  ADD  nickname  varchar(30);

<changeSet author="your.name" id="4">
    <addColumn tableName="person">
        <column name="nickname" type="varchar(30)"/>
    </addColumn>
</changeSet>

{
  "changeSet": {
    "id": "4",
    "author": "your.name",
    "changes": [
      {
        "addColumn": {
          "tableName": "person",
          "columns": [
            {
              "column": {
                "name": "nickname",
                "type": "varchar(30)"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
     }]
   }
}

- changeSet:
    id: 4
    author: your.name
    changes:
      - addColumn:
          tableName: person
          columns:
            - column:
                name: nickname
                type: varchar(30)

--changeset your.name:4
ALTER  TABLE  person  ADD  nickname  varchar(30);

<changeSet author="your.name" id="4">
    <addColumn tableName="person">
        <column name="nickname" type="varchar(30)"/>
    </addColumn>
</changeSet>

{
  "changeSet": {
    "id": "4",
    "author": "your.name",
    "changes": [
      {
        "addColumn": {
          "tableName": "person",
          "columns": [
            {
              "column": {
                "name": "nickname",
                "type": "varchar(30)"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
     }]
   }
}

- changeSet:
    id: 4
    author: your.name
    changes:
      - addColumn:
          tableName: person
          columns:
            - column:
                name: nickname
                type: varchar(30)

Save and close example-changelog

Enter the following command

liquibase update

Liquibase displays the following output:

Running Changeset: example-changelog.yaml::4::your.name Liquibase command 'update' was executed successfully.

Confirm the update by refreshing the database console and verifying that the NICKNAME column has been added to the PERSON table.

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