How to add one column into existing SQL Table - sql-server

I have a SQL Server table and it is located on a remote server. I can connect to it with SQL Server Management Studio but opening it takes time instead, I am doing my jobs with SQL Query window without reaching it.
Recently I've made a change on the local copy of this table and want to update the remote one as well. All I've done is adding one more column which is Nullable and I'd like to learn how to add this one more column to the remote SQL Server with T-SQL without ruining the remote one data.
Here is the additional info:
Table Name: Products
Columns to be added: LastUpdate, Nullable and varchar(200)
Thanks.

The syntax you need is
ALTER TABLE Products ADD LastUpdate varchar(200) NULL
This is a metadata only operation

What about something like:
Alter Table Products
Add LastUpdate varchar(200) null
Do you need something more complex than this?

Its work perfectly
ALTER TABLE `products` ADD `LastUpdate` varchar(200) NULL;
But if you want more precise in table then you can try AFTER.
ALTER TABLE `products` ADD `LastUpdate` varchar(200) NULL AFTER `column_name`;
It will add LastUpdate column after specified column name (column_name).

alter table table_name add field_name (size);
alter table arnicsc add place number(10);

Related

SQL Server : alter table type

What happens when you execute the same alter column several times, e.g:
ALTER table1 ALTER column column1 varchar(40)
ALTER table1 ALTER column column1 varchar(40)
...
Does SQL Server compare altering types in first place or does it use the same mechanism for every alter?
You can check the transaction log, or use table change tracking, or use CDC to track, then you will find out what id the difference between first time and second time. You will see no difference.

How to change column datatype in SQL Server database without losing data?

I have SQL Server database and I just realized that I can change the type of one of the columns from int to bool.
How can I do that without losing the data that is already entered into that table?
You can easily do this using the following command. Any value of 0 will be turned into a 0 (BIT = false), anything else will be turned into 1 (BIT = true).
ALTER TABLE dbo.YourTable
ALTER COLUMN YourColumnName BIT
The other option would be to create a new column of type BIT, fill it from the old column, and once you're done, drop the old column and rename the new one to the old name. That way, if something during the conversion goes wrong, you can always go back since you still have all the data..
ALTER TABLE tablename
ALTER COLUMN columnname columndatatype(size)
Note: if there is a size of columns, just write the size also.
If it is a valid change.
you can change the property.
Tools --> Options --> Designers --> Table and Database designers --> Uncheck --> Prevent saving changes that required table re-creation.
Now you can easily change the column name without recreating the table or losing u r records.
if you use T-SQL(MSSQL); you should try this script:
ALTER TABLE [Employee] ALTER COLUMN [Salary] NUMERIC(22,5)
if you use MySQL; you should try this script:
ALTER TABLE [Employee] MODIFY COLUMN [Salary] NUMERIC(22,5)
if you use Oracle; you should try this script:
ALTER TABLE [Employee] MODIFY [Salary] NUMERIC(22,5)
Why do you think you will lose data? Simply go into Management Studio and change the data type. If the existing value can be converted to bool (bit), it will do that. In other words, if "1" maps to true and "0" maps to false in your original field, you'll be fine.
Go to Tool-Option-designers-Table and Database designers and Uncheck Prevent saving option
for me , in sql server 2016, I do it like this
*To rename column Column1 to column2
EXEC sp_rename 'dbo.T_Table1.Column1', 'Column2', 'COLUMN'
*To modify column Type from string to int:( Please be sure that data are in the correct format)
ALTER TABLE dbo.T_Table1 ALTER COLUMN Column2 int;
Alter column data type with check type of column :
IF EXISTS(
SELECT 1
FROM sys.columns
WHERE NAME = 'YourColumnName'
AND [object_id] = OBJECT_ID('dbo.YourTable')
AND TYPE_NAME(system_type_id) = 'int'
)
ALTER TABLE dbo.YourTable ALTER COLUMN YourColumnName BIT
In compact edition will take size automatically for datetime data type i.e. (8) so no need to set size of field and generate error for this operation...
I can modify the table field's datatype, with these following query: and also in the Oracle DB,
ALTER TABLE table_name
MODIFY column_name datatype;
Replace datatype without losing data
alter table tablename modify columnn newdatatype(size);

any idea why running alter column causes column to go from “not null” to “null”?

I am mass updating a SQL Server database. I am changing all our numeric(38,0) columns to int (yes, SQL Server scripts were created from Oracle scripts).
Using SMO and C# (I am a sw engineer), I managed to generate really nice scripts like SQL Server Management Studio would.
It all works very nicely except for one particular issue:
For a handful of tables, when I call
ALTER TABLE [myTable] ALTER COLUMN [columnA] INT
it decides to also change the column from NOT NULL to NULL. That, of course is a huge issue since I need to regenerate primary keys for most of those tables on those particular columns.
Obviously, I have plenty of options using SMO to find out which columns are primary keys and force them to be NOT NULL after or while I am updating the data type, but I am really curious as to what can be causing this.
Regards,
Eric.
Because in the absense of NOT NULL, the default is NULL.
ALTER TABLE [myTable]
ALTER COLUMN [columnA] INT NOT NULL
from ALTER TABLE (Transact-SQL)
When you create or alter a table with
the CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE
statements, the database and session
settings influence and possibly
override the nullability of the data
type that is used in a column
definition. We recommend that you
always explicitly define a column as
NULL or NOT NULL for noncomputed
columns.

Can you add identity to existing column in sql server 2008?

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.

How to change the data type of a column without dropping the column with query?

I have a column which has a datatype : datetime. But now i want to convert it to datatype varchar. Can i alter the datatype without droppping the column? If yes, then please explain how?
MSDN says
ALTER TABLE mytable ALTER COLUMN mycolumn newtype
Beware of the limitations of the ALTER COLUMN clause listed in the article
If ALTER COLUMN doesn't work.
It is not unusual for alter column to fail because it cannot make the transformation you desire. In this case, the solution is to create a dummy table TableName_tmp, copy the data over with your specialized transformation in the bulk Insert command, drop the original table, and rename the tmp table to the original table's name. You'll have to drop and recreate the Foreign key constraints and, for performance, you'll probably want to create keys after filling the tmp table.
Sound like a lot of work? Actually, it isn't.
If you are using SQL Server, you can make the SQL Server Management Studio do the work for you!
Bring up your table structure (right-click on the table column and select "Modify")
Make all of your changes (if the column transformation is illegal, just add your new column - you'll patch it up in a moment).
Right-click on the background of the Modify window and select "Generate Change Script." In the window that appears, you can copy the change script to the clipboard.
Cancel the Modify (you'll want to test your script, after all) and then paste the script into a new query window.
Modify as necessary (e.g. add your transformation while removing the field from the tmp table declaration) and you now have the script necessary to make your transformation.
ALTER TABLE [table name] MODIFY COLUMN [column name] datatype
ALTER TABLE YourTableNameHere ALTER COLUMN YourColumnNameHere VARCHAR(20)
Type the below query:
alter table table_Name alter column column_name datatype
e.g.
alter table Message alter column message nvarchar(1024);
ALTER TABLE YourTableNameHere ALTER COLUMN YourColumnNameHere VARCHAR(20)
With SQL server 2008 and more, using this query:
ALTER TABLE [RecipeInventorys] ALTER COLUMN [RecipeName] varchar(550)
This work for postgresql 9.0.3
alter table [table name] ALTER COLUMN [column name] TYPE [character varying];
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/sql-altertable.html
ALTER TABLE [table_name] ALTER COLUMN [column_name] varchar(150)
ALTER TABLE YourTableNameHere ALTER COLUMN YourColumnNameHere VARCHAR(20) this is perfect for change to datatype
ORACLE - Alter table table_name modify(column_name new_DataType);
ALTER TABLE yourtable MODIFY COLUMN yourcolumn datatype
ALTER TABLE table_name
MODIFY (column_name data_type);
ALTER tablename MODIFY columnName newColumnType
I'm not sure how it will handle the change from datetime to varchar though, so you may need to rename the column, add a new one with the old name and the correct data type (varchar) and then write an update query to populate the new column from the old.
http://www.1keydata.com/sql/sql-alter-table.html
alter table [table name] remove [present column name] to [new column name.

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