“If not exists” fails on SQL CE

Question

I\'ve got an unexpected problem. I\'m making a script to update the schema on a SQL CE database. This won\'t run:

if not exists
(
    Select column_name from         


        

Answer 1

I confess to not being familiar with SQL Server CE's special limitations, however, if it supports Dynamic SQL, then this should work:

Declare @sql as nvarchar(max);
Set @sql = '';

Select @sql = 'Alter table Inventory_Master_File
  add TempTestField nvarchar(10) null   '
from information_schema.columns
where column_name = 'TempTestField' 
    and table_name = 'Inventory_Master_File' 

EXEC(@sql);