Modify column Vs change column

I found one difference after more than an hour of effort in trying to make a non auto_increment column into auto_increment statement:

alter table `doctor_experience` modify column `id` int(11) unsigned auto_increment

works, but statment:

alter table `doctor_experience` change column `id` `id` int(11) unsigned auto_increment 

will report an error.

The difference is whether you want to change the column name, column definition or both.

CHANGE

Can change a column name or definition, or both
ALTER TABLE t1 CHANGE a b BIGINT NOT NULL

MODIFY

Can change a column definition but not its name
ALTER TABLE t1 MODIFY b INT NOT NULL

RENAME COLUMN (from MySQL 8.0)

Can change a column name but not its definition
ALTER TABLE t1 RENAME COLUMN b TO a

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Also, CHANGE and MODIFY can be followed by an optional COLUMN keyword.

For complete explanation:

1. MySQL 5.7 Docs- Renaming, Redefining, and Reordering Columns
2. MySQL 8.0 Docs- Renaming, Redefining, and Reordering Columns

CHANGE COLUMN

If you have already created your MySQL database, and decide after the fact that one of your columns is named incorrectly, you don't need to remove it and make a replacement, you can simply rename it using change column.

ALTER TABLE MyTable CHANGE COLUMN foo bar VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL FIRST;

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MODIFY COLUMN

This command does everything CHANGE COLUMN can, but without renaming the column. You can use the MODIFY SQL command if you need to resize a column in MySQL. By doing this you can allow more or less characters than before. You can't rename a column using MODIFY and other.

ALTER TABLE MyTable MODIFY COLUMN foo VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL AFTER baz;

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Note

ALTER TABLE is used for altering a table in order to change column name, size, drop column etc. CHANGE COLUMN and MODIFY COLUMN commands cannot be used without help of ALTER TABLE command.