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ADD ADD CONSTRAINT ALL ALTER ALTER COLUMN ALTER TABLE AND ANY AS ASC BACKUP DATABASE BETWEEN CASE CHECK COLUMN CONSTRAINT CREATE CREATE DATABASE CREATE INDEX CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW CREATE TABLE CREATE PROCEDURE CREATE UNIQUE INDEX CREATE VIEW DATABASE DEFAULT DELETE DESC DISTINCT DROP DROP COLUMN DROP CONSTRAINT DROP DATABASE DROP DEFAULT DROP INDEX DROP TABLE DROP VIEW EXEC EXISTS FOREIGN KEY FROM FULL OUTER JOIN GROUP BY HAVING IN INDEX INNER JOIN INSERT INTO INSERT INTO SELECT IS NULL IS NOT NULL JOIN LEFT JOIN LIKE LIMIT NOT NOT NULL OR ORDER BY OUTER JOIN PRIMARY KEY PROCEDURE RIGHT JOIN ROWNUM SELECT SELECT DISTINCT SELECT INTO SELECT TOP SET TABLE TOP TRUNCATE TABLE UNION UNION ALL UNIQUE UPDATE VALUES VIEW WHERE
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String Functions: ASCII CHAR_LENGTH CHARACTER_LENGTH CONCAT CONCAT_WS FIELD FIND_IN_SET FORMAT INSERT INSTR LCASE LEFT LENGTH LOCATE LOWER LPAD LTRIM MID POSITION REPEAT REPLACE REVERSE RIGHT RPAD RTRIM SPACE STRCMP SUBSTR SUBSTRING SUBSTRING_INDEX TRIM UCASE UPPER Numeric Functions: ABS ACOS ASIN ATAN ATAN2 AVG CEIL CEILING COS COT COUNT DEGREES DIV EXP FLOOR GREATEST LEAST LN LOG LOG10 LOG2 MAX MIN MOD PI POW POWER RADIANS RAND ROUND SIGN SIN SQRT SUM TAN TRUNCATE Date Functions: ADDDATE ADDTIME CURDATE CURRENT_DATE CURRENT_TIME CURRENT_TIMESTAMP CURTIME DATE DATEDIFF DATE_ADD DATE_FORMAT DATE_SUB DAY DAYNAME DAYOFMONTH DAYOFWEEK DAYOFYEAR EXTRACT FROM_DAYS HOUR LAST_DAY LOCALTIME LOCALTIMESTAMP MAKEDATE MAKETIME MICROSECOND MINUTE MONTH MONTHNAME NOW PERIOD_ADD PERIOD_DIFF QUARTER SECOND SEC_TO_TIME STR_TO_DATE SUBDATE SUBTIME SYSDATE TIME TIME_FORMAT TIME_TO_SEC TIMEDIFF TIMESTAMP TO_DAYS WEEK WEEKDAY WEEKOFYEAR YEAR YEARWEEK Advanced Functions: BIN BINARY CASE CAST COALESCE CONNECTION_ID CONV CONVERT CURRENT_USER DATABASE IF IFNULL ISNULL LAST_INSERT_ID NULLIF SESSION_USER SYSTEM_USER USER VERSION
SQL Server Functions
String Functions: ASCII CHAR CHARINDEX CONCAT Concat with + CONCAT_WS DATALENGTH DIFFERENCE FORMAT LEFT LEN LOWER LTRIM NCHAR PATINDEX QUOTENAME REPLACE REPLICATE REVERSE RIGHT RTRIM SOUNDEX SPACE STR STUFF SUBSTRING TRANSLATE TRIM UNICODE UPPER Numeric Functions: ABS ACOS ASIN ATAN ATN2 AVG CEILING COUNT COS COT DEGREES EXP FLOOR LOG LOG10 MAX MIN PI POWER RADIANS RAND ROUND SIGN SIN SQRT SQUARE SUM TAN Date Functions: CURRENT_TIMESTAMP DATEADD DATEDIFF DATEFROMPARTS DATENAME DATEPART DAY GETDATE GETUTCDATE ISDATE MONTH SYSDATETIME YEAR Advanced Functions CAST COALESCE CONVERT CURRENT_USER IIF ISNULL ISNUMERIC NULLIF SESSION_USER SESSIONPROPERTY SYSTEM_USER USER_NAME
MS Access Functions
String Functions: Asc Chr Concat with & CurDir Format InStr InstrRev LCase Left Len LTrim Mid Replace Right RTrim Space Split Str StrComp StrConv StrReverse Trim UCase Numeric Functions: Abs Atn Avg Cos Count Exp Fix Format Int Max Min Randomize Rnd Round Sgn Sqr Sum Val Date Functions: Date DateAdd DateDiff DatePart DateSerial DateValue Day Format Hour Minute Month MonthName Now Second Time TimeSerial TimeValue Weekday WeekdayName Year Other Functions: CurrentUser Environ IsDate IsNull IsNumeric
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SQL ALTER TABLE Statement

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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 Customers
ADD Email varchar(255);
Try it Yourself »

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 Customers
DROP COLUMN Email;
Try it Yourself »

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;

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 DateOfBirth
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

Test Yourself With Exercises

Exercise:

Add a column of type DATE called Birthday.

 Persons
;

Start the Exercise


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