Increasing the size of character varying type in postgres without data loss

Question

I need to increase the size of a character varying(60) field in a postgres database table without data loss.

I have this command

alter table client_deta         


        

Answer 1

Yes. But it will rewrite this table and lock it exclusively for duration of rewriting — any query trying to access this table will wait until rewrite finishes.

Consider changing type to text and using check constraint for limiting size — changing constraint would not rewrite or lock a table.