SQL › Alter and Drop Column Support

Alter and Drop Column Support

With this release, you can alter and drop columns in SQL tables. This ability lets you change the structure of a table without unloading and reloading data.

You can now make the following types of column changes using the ALTER TABLE statement:

• Change a column’s data type or null attribute
• Drop or change a column’s default clause
• Rename a column
• Drop a column

In addition, the syntax for adding columns lets you include an optional COLUMN keyword following the ADD keyword. Inclusion of the COLUMN keyword makes the syntax consistent with the SQL standard and with other column-related clauses.