At present when using dynamic columns, one must first create a dynamic column using COLUMN_CREATE() in order to be able to use COLUMN_ADD() otherwise when COLUMN_ADD is called it returns NULL and ROW_COUNT() returns 0.

If one is adding attributes to a blob of dynamic columns it would be advantageous to not have to check for each record if a column needs to be created first.

For instance would it be possible/proper to do away with the column_create() function altogether and incorporate its functionality into the COLUMN_ADD(). Consider the following functionality for COLUMN_ADD.

IF(col does not exist){

        create new column

}elseif(col exists)

        overwrite existing column

}

Strangely this is only an issue if the blob is empty. If COLUMN_CREATE has been run to create a different column then COLUMN_ADD will add a new column to the blob. However if the blob is empty then COLUMN_ADD returns NULL.