Introduction
One question I received quite often. How to change the order of the column in database table? It happens many times table with few columns is already created. After a while there is need to add new column to the previously existing table. Sometime it makes sense to add new column in middle of columns at specific places. There is no direct way to do this in SQL Server currently. Many users want to know if there is any workaround or solution to this situation.
Background
First of all, If there is any application which depends on the order of column it is really not good programming and will create problem for sure in future. In ideal scenario there should be no need of order of column in database table. Any column can be any where and it can be used for any data process (INSERT, UPDATE, SELECT).
There are few cases where order of column matters. Let us see the valid and invalid cases of dependence on order of column.
If there is application of BULK INSERT or BCP the order of column matters when creating the table. This is valid reason for the case where order of column matters. If there is insert statement where column names are not specified the order of column will create issue, this case demonstrate lazy developer and inappropriate coding style.
If you really want to insert your column at any specific place. There are two different ways to do that.
Using the code
Here the code that do the job:
DROP TABLE TestTable
GO
EXEC sp_configure 'allow updates',0
GO
RECONFIGURE
GO
CREATE TABLE TestTable(
identcol INT IDENTITY(1,1),
col1 INT,
col2 INT,
col3 INT,
CONSTRAINT pk_TestTable PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED (identcol ASC))
CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX idx_TestTable ON TestTable(col2 DESC)
INSERT TestTable(col1, col2, col3)
SELECT 1,8,9 UNION ALL
SELECT 2,7,11 UNION ALL
SELECT 3,6,10 UNION ALL
SELECT 4,5,12
EXEC sp_configure 'allow updates',1
GO
RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE
GO
ALTER TABLE TestTable DROP CONSTRAINT PK_TestTable
GO
ALTER TABLE TestTable ADD F1236 CHAR(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT ''
GO
DECLARE @myindex int = 2
GO
DECLARE @NewFieldIdx int
GO
SELECT sc.colorder into @NewFieldIdx
FROM sysobjects so INNER JOIN syscolumns sc ON so.id = sc.id
WHERE so.name = 'TestTable' and sc.name = 'F1236'
GO
UPDATE sc
SET sc.colorder =
CASE
WHEN sc.colorder = @NewFieldIdx THEN @myindex
WHEN sc.colorder > @myindex-1 THEN sc.colorder + 1
ELSE sc.colorder
END,
sc.colid =
CASE
WHEN sc.colid = @NewFieldIdx THEN @myindex
WHEN sc.colid > @myindex-1 THEN sc.colid + 1
ELSE sc.colid
END
FROM sysobjects so INNER JOIN syscolumns sc ON so.id = sc.id
WHERE so.name = 'TestTable'
GO
ALTER TABLE TestTable ADD CONSTRAINT PK_TestTable PRIMARY KEY (identcol,F1236)
GO
EXEC sp_configure 'allow updates',0
GO
Points of Interest
The script has the capability to change table columns order in SQL Server for new added fields.
