I'm trying to drop a table if it exists.
I created a table, that worked fine. I can drop the table with the DROP TABLE command. What I can't do is any form of this:
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS customer;
In fact, I can't seem to get any form of IF EXISTS to work at all. I went to the MS website and looked up how to do this, and their example won't even run:
CREATE TABLE T1 (Col1 int);
GO
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS T1;
GO
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS T1;
Any ideas?
According to the documentation, the IF EXISTS clause is only allowed in Azure SQL Database and SQL Server 2016 or later. So it seems you are using SQL Server 2014 or earlier.
You'll need to first check that the table exists in earlier versions. One method is checking for a OBJECT_ID that is NOT NULL:
IF OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.customer', 'U') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE dbo.customer;
Related
When running automated scripts I want to be able to create a table only if it doesn't exist.
Is there a way for netezza to evaluate this without throwing an error?
Starting in 7.2.1 this can be achieved.
create table IF NOT EXISTS table_name
( field_name varchar(10))
Conversely
You can can use if exists to only drop tables that exist.
drop table table_name if exists;
I'm migrating our system from Oracle to SQL SERVER. In Oracle we have insert triggers that are resposnible for setting primary key if not set. Below you will find code from PL/SQL.
create or replace trigger trigg1
before insert on table1
for each row
when (new.ID_T1 is null) -- if primary key is null
begin
select OUR_SEQ.nextval into :new.ID_T1 from dual;
end trigg1;
Now I have to do something similar in T-SQL. I found the solution, but unfortunatelly I have to list all the columns for the table trigger is created. This is something I want to avoid (model for the system is still very dynamic).
Is it possible to implement such trigger without listing all the columns in trigger?
Marcin
In all my searching I see that you essentially have to copy the existing table to a new table to chance to identity column for pre-2008, does this apply to 2008 also?
thanks.
most concise solution I have found so far:
CREATE TABLE Test
(
id int identity(1,1),
somecolumn varchar(10)
);
INSERT INTO Test VALUES ('Hello');
INSERT INTO Test VALUES ('World');
-- copy the table. use same schema, but no identity
CREATE TABLE Test2
(
id int NOT NULL,
somecolumn varchar(10)
);
ALTER TABLE Test SWITCH TO Test2;
-- drop the original (now empty) table
DROP TABLE Test;
-- rename new table to old table's name
EXEC sp_rename 'Test2','Test';
-- see same records
SELECT * FROM Test;
we cannot add identity to an existing column using sql command but we can do it using GUI.
Right click on the table - design - select the column on which you want to add identity.
go to the properties available below. find the identity specification and set it to yes.
save the table.
if it is not saved the go to tools from the menu - options - table designer - uncheck the checkbox prevent saving changes. now you can save the table modifications.
now your existing table had identity.
In all of the new feature documents I read about 2008, adding identity to an existing column was not a feature I recall. The solution you've found is correct and I think the process of adding identity increment to a column automatically would be only rarely useful.
Well you can do something like this.
ALTER TABLE my_table ADD ID_COLUMN INT IDENTITY (1,1) NOT NULL
You can add the IDENTITY property to an existing column using the GUI of Enterprise Manager / Management Studio.
In SQL 2005 and earlier, you could not modify an existing column to become an identity column. I deem it very very unlikely that MS changed that in 2008.
In SQL Server (in my case, 2005) how can I add the identity property to an existing table column using T-SQL?
Something like:
alter table tblFoo
alter column bar identity(1,1)
I don't beleive you can do that. Your best bet is to create a new identity column and copy the data over using an identity insert command (if you indeed want to keep the old values).
Here is a decent article describing the process in detail:
http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1397
The solution posted by Vikash doesn't work; it produces an "Incorrect syntax" error in SQL Management Studio (2005, as the OP specified). The fact that the "Compact Edition" of SQL Server supports this kind of operation is just a shortcut, because the real process is more like what Robert & JohnFX said--creating a duplicate table, populating the data, renaming the original & new tables appropriately.
If you want to keep the values that already exist in the field that needs to be an identity, you could do something like this:
CREATE TABLE tname2 (etc.)
INSERT INTO tname2 FROM tname1
DROP TABLE tname1
CREATE TABLE tname1 (with IDENTITY specified)
SET IDENTITY_INSERT tname1 ON
INSERT INTO tname1 FROM tname2
SET IDENTITY_INSERT tname1 OFF
DROP tname2
Of course, dropping and re-creating a table (tname1) that is used by live code is NOT recommended! :)
Is the table populated? If not drop and recreate the table.
If it is populated what values already exist in the column? If they are values you don't want to keep.
Create a new table as you desire it, load the records from your old table into your new talbe and let the database populate the identity column as normal. Rename your original table and rename the new one to the correct name :).
Finally if the column you wish to make identity currently contains primary key values and is being referenced already by other tables you will need to totally re think if you're sure this is what you want to do :)
There is no direct way of doing this except:
A) through SQL i.e.:
-- make sure you have the correct CREATE TABLE script ready with IDENTITY
SELECT * INTO abcTable_copy FROM abcTable
DROP TABLE abcTable
CREATE TABLE abcTable -- this time with the IDENTITY column
SET IDENTITY_INSERT abcTable ON
INSERT INTO abcTable (..specify all columns!) FROM (..specify all columns!) abcTable_copy
SET INDENTITY_INSERT abcTable OFF
DROP TABLE abcTable_copy
-- I would suggest to verify the contents of both tables
-- before dropping the copy table
B) Through MSSMS which will do exactly the same in the background but will less fat-fingering.
In the MSSMS Object Explorer right click the table you need to modify
Select "design" Select the column you'd like to add IDENTITY to
Change the identity setting from NO -> YES (possibly seed)
Ctr+S the table
This will drop and recreate the table with all original data in it.
If you get a warning:
Go to MSSMS Tools -> Options -> Designers -> Table and database Designers
and uncheck the option "Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation"
Things to be careful about:
your DB has enough disk space before you do this
the DB is not in use (especially the table you are changing)
make sure to backup your DB before doing it
if the table has a lot of data (over 1G) try it somewhere else first
before using in real DB
Create a New Table
SELECT * INTO Table_New FROM Table_Current WHERE 1 = 0;
Drop Column from New Table
Alter table Table_New drop column id;
Add column with identity
Alter table Table_New add id int primary key identity;
Get All Data in New Table
SET IDENTITY_INSERT Table_New ON;
INSERT INTO Table_New (id, Name,CreatedDate,Modified)
SELECT id, Name,CreatedDate,Modified FROM Table_Current;
SET IDENTITY_INSERT Table_New OFF;
Drop old Table
drop table Table_Current;
Rename New Table as old One
EXEC sp_rename 'Table_New', 'Table_Current';
alter table tablename
alter column columnname
add Identity(100,1)
I am working with SQL Server (I am a SQL Server noob) and trying to alter a table. I want to CREATE TABLE LIKE to safely store data while I drop keys and constraints and all the other rigamorole that SQL Server seems to require when altering on the original table but I have not been able to find a match to that command...
you want to recreate the same structure?
how about this
SELECT *
into test
FROM myRealTable
where 0=1
no data will be inserted into the new table
You can do
SELECT * INTO #MyTable_tmp FROM MyTable
Then modify your MyTable, and copy your data back in. Other approaches I've seen is to create a new table call it Mytable_Tmp (Not a temp table), which will be your new table.
Then copy your data doing any migrations you need. Then you will drop the original table and do a rename on Mytable.
Or you can get one of the many excellant tools that compare databases and generate difference scripts or VSTS DB Edition (Comes with developer) and you can do a diff script from a project file to a DB.
Edit
When you run SELECT * INTO #MyTable FROM MyTable, SQL Server creates a new temporary table called #MyTable that matches each column and data type from your select clause. In this case we are selecting * so it will match MyTable. This only creates the columns it doesn't copy defaults, constraints indexes or anything else.