Adding a New Column with a Default Value to an existing Table

Adding a New Column with a Default value to an existing Table means, that after creating a Table, how a new Column is added to the table with a Default Value, and the default value data type should be based on the Data Type of the new Column added. Adding a New Column with a default value into an existing table can be done using two methods.

  1. ALTER TABLE
  2. SSMS Method

Let us look into both methods in detail with examples below:

How to Add a Column with a Default Value to an Existing Table in SQL Server

In SQL Server sometimes it may be required to set the default value to a Column in a table. This default value will be set as the column value when there is no value inserted or left empty for that particular column while data is inserted into the Table. Sometimes after creating a table, it may be required to add a New Column with Default Value based on new requirements or the developer missed it to add a specific Column when the database table schema was initially created.

In this article, we will discuss about adding a New Column with a Default value to an existing Table in SQL Server.

Similar Reads

Adding a New Column with a Default Value to an existing Table

Adding a New Column with a Default value to an existing Table means, that after creating a Table, how a new Column is added to the table with a Default Value, and the default value data type should be based on the Data Type of the new Column added. Adding a New Column with a default value into an existing table can be done using two methods....

1. ALTER TABLE

Alter table method can be used with the T-SQL statement from the Query Window in SQL Management Studio to add aa New Column with a Default value to an existing Table. The New Column added can be of different data types and the default value set should be of the same data type as the new column added. There are different data types like bit, numerical, Date, or Text. So we will see how different data type columns can be added with default value using the ‘Alter Table’ command....

2. SSMS Method

A new column with Default Value can also be added to an existing table from SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) using ‘New Column’ menu Option from object explorer window as below. In this example we are adding a new Text column ‘RoleAssigned’ with default value to EmployeeData table....

Conclusion

In this article we have seen how a new Column is created in an existing table with Default Value. We also explored the two methods, using the T-SQL method using ALTER TABLE method and also the SSMS method using the Object explorer option and using the ‘New Column’ menu option under the Coumns object inside the tables object. Adding new columns using the Alter Table method is mainly useful when there is already data added to the table. If no data is added to the table then delete the table and re-create the atble with the addditional columns and default values is the best option....