“Prevent saving changes that require the table to be re-created” negative effects

Question

Preamble

I was modifying a column in SQL Server 2008 today, changing the datatype from something like currency(18,0) to (19,2).

I got the

Answer 1

Yes, there are negative effects from this:

If you script out a change blocked by this flag you get something like the script below (all i am turning the ID column in Contact into an autonumbered IDENTITY column, but the table has dependencies). Note potential errors that can occur while the following is running:

1. Even microsoft warns that this may cause data loss (that comment is auto-generated)!
2. for a period of time, foreign keys are not enforced.
3. if you manually run this in ssms and the ' EXEC('INSERT INTO ' fails, and you let the following statements run (which they do by default, as they are split by 'go') then you will insert 0 rows, then drop the old table.
4. if this is a big table, the runtime of the insert can be large, and the transaction is holding a schema modification lock, so blocks many things.

--

/* To prevent any potential data loss issues, you should review this script in detail before running it outside the context of the database designer.*/

BEGIN TRANSACTION
GO
ALTER TABLE raw.Contact
    DROP CONSTRAINT fk_Contact_AddressType
GO
ALTER TABLE ref.ContactpointType SET (LOCK_ESCALATION = TABLE)
GO
COMMIT
BEGIN TRANSACTION
GO
ALTER TABLE raw.Contact
    DROP CONSTRAINT fk_contact_profile
GO
ALTER TABLE raw.Profile SET (LOCK_ESCALATION = TABLE)
GO
COMMIT
BEGIN TRANSACTION
GO
CREATE TABLE raw.Tmp_Contact
    (
    ContactID int NOT NULL IDENTITY (1, 1),
    ProfileID int NOT NULL,
    AddressType char(2) NOT NULL,
    ContactText varchar(250) NULL
    )  ON [PRIMARY]
GO
ALTER TABLE raw.Tmp_Contact SET (LOCK_ESCALATION = TABLE)
GO
SET IDENTITY_INSERT raw.Tmp_Contact ON
GO
IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM raw.Contact)
     EXEC('INSERT INTO raw.Tmp_Contact (ContactID, ProfileID, AddressType, ContactText)
        SELECT ContactID, ProfileID, AddressType, ContactText FROM raw.Contact WITH (HOLDLOCK TABLOCKX)')
GO
SET IDENTITY_INSERT raw.Tmp_Contact OFF
GO
ALTER TABLE raw.PostalAddress
    DROP CONSTRAINT fk_AddressProfile
GO
ALTER TABLE raw.MarketingFlag
    DROP CONSTRAINT fk_marketingflag_contact
GO
ALTER TABLE raw.Phones
    DROP CONSTRAINT fk_phones_contact
GO
DROP TABLE raw.Contact
GO
EXECUTE sp_rename N'raw.Tmp_Contact', N'Contact', 'OBJECT' 
GO
ALTER TABLE raw.Contact ADD CONSTRAINT
    Idx_Contact_1 PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
    (
    ProfileID,
    ContactID
    ) 

GO
ALTER TABLE raw.Contact ADD CONSTRAINT
    Idx_Contact UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED 
    (
    ProfileID,
    ContactID
    ) 

GO
CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX idx_Contact_0 ON raw.Contact
    (
    AddressType
    ) 
GO
ALTER TABLE raw.Contact ADD CONSTRAINT
    fk_contact_profile FOREIGN KEY
    (
    ProfileID
    ) REFERENCES raw.Profile
    (
    ProfileID
    ) ON UPDATE  NO ACTION 
     ON DELETE  NO ACTION 

GO
ALTER TABLE raw.Contact ADD CONSTRAINT
    fk_Contact_AddressType FOREIGN KEY
    (
    AddressType
    ) REFERENCES ref.ContactpointType
    (
    ContactPointTypeCode
    ) ON UPDATE  NO ACTION 
     ON DELETE  NO ACTION 

GO
COMMIT
BEGIN TRANSACTION
GO
ALTER TABLE raw.Phones ADD CONSTRAINT
    fk_phones_contact FOREIGN KEY
    (
    ProfileID,
    PhoneID
    ) REFERENCES raw.Contact
    (
    ProfileID,
    ContactID
    ) ON UPDATE  NO ACTION 
     ON DELETE  NO ACTION 

GO
ALTER TABLE raw.Phones SET (LOCK_ESCALATION = TABLE)
GO
COMMIT
BEGIN TRANSACTION
GO
ALTER TABLE raw.MarketingFlag ADD CONSTRAINT
    fk_marketingflag_contact FOREIGN KEY
    (
    ProfileID,
    ContactID
    ) REFERENCES raw.Contact
    (
    ProfileID,
    ContactID
    ) ON UPDATE  NO ACTION 
     ON DELETE  NO ACTION 

GO
ALTER TABLE raw.MarketingFlag SET (LOCK_ESCALATION = TABLE)
GO
COMMIT
BEGIN TRANSACTION
GO
ALTER TABLE raw.PostalAddress ADD CONSTRAINT
    fk_AddressProfile FOREIGN KEY
    (
    ProfileID,
    AddressID
    ) REFERENCES raw.Contact
    (
    ProfileID,
    ContactID
    ) ON UPDATE  NO ACTION 
     ON DELETE  NO ACTION 

GO
ALTER TABLE raw.PostalAddress SET (LOCK_ESCALATION = TABLE)
GO
COMMIT