'Is the COLUMN keyword in MySQL optional?

In commands like the where the DROP clause is used

ALTER TABLE DROP <column>

and

ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN <column>

are both accepted.

Are there any commands in which the COLUMN keyword is not optional or is it optional everywhere?



Solution 1:[1]

From MySQL docs

The word COLUMN is optional and can be omitted, except for RENAME COLUMN (to distinguish a column-renaming operation from the RENAME table-renaming operation).

Solution 2:[2]

It is clear in the syntax reference where the COLUMN keyword is optional:

 | DROP [COLUMN] col_name

The square-brackets notation in the syntax reference means that the word inside the brackets is optional. See the linked documentation page for other cases of optional keywords.

Sources

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Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 Ergest Basha
Solution 2 Bill Karwin