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SQL ALTER TABLE Statement

The ALTER TABLE statement is used to add, delete, or modify columns in an existing table.

The ALTER TABLE statement is also used to add and drop various constraints on an existing table.

ALTER TABLE - ADD Column

To add a column in a table, use the following syntax:

ALTER TABLE table_name ADD column_name datatype;

The following SQL adds an "Email" column to the "Customers" table:

Example

ALTER TABLE CustomersADD Email varchar(255);

ALTER TABLE - DROP COLUMN

To delete a column in a table, use the following syntax (notice that some database systems don't allow deleting a column):

ALTER TABLE table_name DROP COLUMN column_name;

The following SQL deletes the "Email" column from the "Customers" table:

Example

ALTER TABLE CustomersDROP COLUMN Email;

ALTER TABLE - RENAME COLUMN

To rename a column in a table, use the following syntax:

ALTER TABLE table_name RENAME COLUMN old_name to new_name;

To rename a column in a table in SQL Server, use the following syntax:

SQL Server:

EXEC sp_rename 'table_name.old_name', 'new_name', 'COLUMN';

ALTER TABLE - ALTER/MODIFY DATATYPE

To change the data type of a column in a table, use the following syntax:

SQL Server / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE table_name ALTER COLUMN column_name datatype;

My SQL / Oracle (prior version 10G):

ALTER TABLE table_name MODIFY COLUMN column_name datatype;

Oracle 10G and later:

ALTER TABLE table_name MODIFY column_name datatype;

SQL ALTER TABLE Example

Look at the "Persons" table:

ID	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
1	Hansen	Ola	Timoteivn 10	Sandnes
2	Svendson	Tove	Borgvn 23	Sandnes
3	Pettersen	Kari	Storgt 20	Stavanger

Now we want to add a column named "DateOfBirth" in the "Persons" table.

We use the following SQL statement:

ALTER TABLE Persons ADD DateOfBirth date;

Notice that the new column, "DateOfBirth", is of type date and is going to hold a date. The data type specifies what type of data the column can hold. For a complete reference of all the data types available in MS Access, MySQL, and SQL Server, go to our complete Data Types reference.

The "Persons" table will now look like this:

ID	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
1	Hansen	Ola	Timoteivn 10	Sandnes
2	Svendson	Tove	Borgvn 23	Sandnes
3	Pettersen	Kari	Storgt 20	Stavanger

Change Data Type Example

Now we want to change the data type of the column named "DateOfBirth" in the "Persons" table.

We use the following SQL statement:

ALTER TABLE Persons ALTER COLUMN DateOfBirth year;

Notice that the "DateOfBirth" column is now of type year and is going to hold a year in a two- or four-digit format.

DROP COLUMN Example

Next, we want to delete the column named "DateOfBirth" in the "Persons" table.

We use the following SQL statement:

ALTER TABLE Persons DROP COLUMN DateOfBirth;

The "Persons" table will now look like this:

ID	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
1	Hansen	Ola	Timoteivn 10	Sandnes
2	Svendson	Tove	Borgvn 23	Sandnes
3	Pettersen	Kari	Storgt 20	Stavanger

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SQL ALTER TABLE Statement - W3Schools