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Home| SQL | SQL Commands| ALTER TABLE

SQL ALTER TABLE

Reading time 2 min
Published Aug 9, 2017
Updated Nov 20, 2019

TL;DR – The ALTER TABLE statement in SQL is used to delete, add, or modify table columns. You can also use it to drop and add various table constraints.

Contents

Adding a new column to the table

Example 
ALTER TABLE mytable_name
ADD mycolumn_name datatype;

Note: the new column will be added to the end of the table by default. You can add multiple columns by separating them with commas.

Deleting a column

Example 
ALTER TABLE mytable_name
DROP COLUMN mycolumn_name;

Changing the data type of a particular column

Note: when changing the data type, make sure the old one and the new one are compatible. Otherwise, you might get conversion errors.

In MySQL / Oracle (< 10G)

Example 
ALTER TABLE mytable_name
MODIFY COLUMN mycolumn_name datatype;

In SQL Server / MS Access

Example 
ALTER TABLE mytable_name
ALTER COLUMN mycolumn_name datatype;

In Oracle 10G and later

Example 
ALTER TABLE mytable_name
MODIFY mycolumn_name datatype;

Examples using a demo database

The Developers table

ID Name City Country
1 Tom Kurkutis New York USA
2 Ana Fernandez London UK
3 Antonio Indigo Paris France
4 Aarav Kaelin Delhi India
5 Andrew Tumota Miami USA
6 Basma Zlata Miami USA

Adding a column called BirthDate

Example 
ALTER TABLE Developers
ADD BirthDate date;

The result

ID Name City Country BirthDate
1 Tom Kurkutis New York USA
2 Ana Fernandez London UK
3 Antonio Indigo Paris France
4 Aarav Kaelin Delhi India
5 Andrew Tumota Miami USA
6 Basma Zlata Miami USA

Changing the data type to year

Example 
ALTER TABLE Developers
ALTER COLUMN BirthDate year;

Deleting the BirthDate column

Example 
ALTER TABLE Developers
DROP COLUMN BirthDate;

The result

ID Name City Country
1 Tom Kurkutis New York USA
2 Ana Fernandez London UK
3 Antonio Indigo Paris France
4 Aarav Kaelin Delhi India
5 Andrew Tumota Miami USA
6 Basma Zlata Miami USA