How can I avoid getting this MySQL error Incorrect column specifier for column COLUMN NAME?

Question

How can I avoid getting this MySQL error Incorrect column specifier for column topic_id ?

MySQL Error...

#1063 - Incorrect column spec         


        

Answer 1

Quoting the doc:

Some attributes do not apply to all data types. AUTO_INCREMENT applies only to integer and floating-point types. DEFAULT does not apply to the BLOB or TEXT types.

In your case, you're trying to apply AUTO_INCREMENT modifier to char column. To solve this, either drop AUTO_INCREMENT altogether (that means you'll have to generate a unique id on the application level) or just change topic_id type to the relevant integer one.

As a sidenote, it makes little sense using char(36) to store the posts count, so that column's type probably has to be changed as well. It looks like you're going this way to prevent integer overflow - but if you're dealing with more than 18446744073709551615 posts (the biggest number that can be stored in BIGINT UNSIGNED column) in a single topic, you have far bigger problem on your side probably. )