How do you change the datatype of a column in SQL Server?

Question

I am trying to change a column from a varchar(50) to a nvarchar(200). What is the SQL command to alter this table?

Solution 1

ALTER TABLE TableName 
ALTER COLUMN ColumnName NVARCHAR(200) [NULL | NOT NULL]

EDIT As noted NULL/NOT NULL should have been specified, see Rob's answer as well.

Solution 2

Don't forget nullability.

ALTER TABLE <schemaName>.<tableName>
ALTER COLUMN <columnName> nvarchar(200) [NULL|NOT NULL]

Solution 3

Use the Alter table statement.

Alter table TableName Alter Column ColumnName nvarchar(100)

Solution 4

The syntax to modify a column in an existing table in SQL Server (Transact-SQL) is:

ALTER TABLE table_name
    ALTER COLUMN column_name column_type;

For example:

ALTER TABLE employees
    ALTER COLUMN last_name VARCHAR(75) NOT NULL;

This SQL Server ALTER TABLE example will modify the column called last_name to be a data type of VARCHAR(75) and force the column to not allow null values.

see here

Solution 5

For changing data type

alter table table_name 
alter column column_name datatype [NULL|NOT NULL]

For changing Primary key

ALTER TABLE table_name  
ADD CONSTRAINT PK_MyTable PRIMARY KEY (column_name)

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