Alter tables in a schema - sql-server

Question

I am trying to set a default value to a column(Inserted_time), but first i need to check if the column exists in the tables. If the column doesn't exist, I need to add that column and give it a default value.
I am working with Sql Server Management Studio.
So far I have written this code:
IF EXISTS ( select TABLE_NAME from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS where TABLE_CATALOG = 'DB_COPY' and COLUMN_NAME = 'Inserted_Time')
begin
ALTER TABLE table_name ADD CONSTRAINT [Inserted_Time_Def] SET DEFAULT (sysdatetimeoffset()) FOR [Inserted_Time]
end
else
ALTER TABLE table_name ADD COLUMN [Inserted_Time] CONSTRAINT [Inserted_Time_Def] DEFAULT (sysdatetimeoffset()) WITH VALUES
Once I retrieve the tables that has the column, I need to add that table_name to the Alter command. But I am not able to do that. Can someone please tell me how to use the table_names retrieved from select statement in the alter statement?

Answer 1

First, you want to put all the table names in a temporary table so you can loop through it.
After, you can use a cursor to execute a command for each table name.
In my example, I only printed the command I wanted to execute. That way you can be sure the code will do what you want first.
Example :
select TABLE_NAME As TableName INTO #TablesList from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS where TABLE_CATALOG = 'DB_COPY' and COLUMN_NAME = 'Inserted_Time'
DECLARE #TablesCursor as CURSOR;
DECLARE #TableName as NVARCHAR(max);
DECLARE #CommandToExecute as NVARCHAR(max);
SET #TablesCursor = CURSOR FOR SELECT TableName FROM #TablesList;
OPEN #TablesCursor;
FETCH NEXT FROM #TablesCursor INTO #TableName;
WHILE ##FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
SET #CommandToExecute = 'ALTER TABLE ' + #TableName + ' WHAT YOU WANNA DO '
PRINT #CommandToExecute
--EXEC(#CommandToExecute)
FETCH NEXT FROM #TablesCursor INTO #TableName;
END
CLOSE #TablesCursor;
DEALLOCATE #TablesCursor;

Answer 2

Assuming that every table is in a different schema, then you could do something like this:
DECLARE #SQL nvarchar(MAX);
SET #SQL = STUFF((SELECT NCHAR(13) + NCHAR(10) +
CASE WHEN EXISTS (SELECT 1
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS C
WHERE T.TABLE_SCHEMA = C.TABLE_SCHEMA
AND T.TABLE_NAME = C.TABLE_SCHEMA
AND C.COLUMN_NAME = N'Inserted_Time') THEN N'ALTER TABLE ' + QUOTENAME(T.TABLE_SCHEMA) + N'.' + QUOTENAME(T.TABLE_NAME) + N' ADD CONSTRAINT [Inserted_Time_Def] DEFAULT (sysdatetimeoffset()) FOR [Inserted_Time];'
ELSE N'ALTER TABLE ' + QUOTENAME(T.TABLE_SCHEMA) + N'.' + QUOTENAME(T.TABLE_NAME) + N' ADD COLUMN [Inserted_Time] CONSTRAINT [Inserted_Time_Def] DEFAULT (sysdatetimeoffset());'
END
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES T
WHERE T.TABLE_CATALOG = N'DB_COPY'
FOR XML PATH(N''),TYPE).value('.','nvarchar(MAX)'),1,2,N'');
PRINT #SQL; --Your best friend. If more than 4,000 characters, use SELECT
EXECUTE sp_executesql #SQL;
This will very likely hugely out perform a CURSOR solution if you have a large number of schemas.