Rename column SQL Server 2008

Question

I am using SQL Server 2008 and Navicat. I need to rename a column in a table using SQL.

ALTER TABLE table_name RENAME COLUMN old_name to new_name;
         


        

Answer 1

It would be a good suggestion to use an already built-in function but another way around is to:

1. Create a new column with same data type and NEW NAME.
2. Run an UPDATE/INSERT statement to copy all the data into new column.
3. Drop the old column.

The benefit behind using the sp_rename is that it takes care of all the relations associated with it.

From the documentation:

sp_rename automatically renames the associated index whenever a PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraint is renamed. If a renamed index is tied to a PRIMARY KEY constraint, the PRIMARY KEY constraint is also automatically renamed by sp_rename. sp_rename can be used to rename primary and secondary XML indexes.