How to rename a table in SQL Server?

Question

The SQL query that I have used is :

ALTER TABLE oldtable RENAME TO newtable;

But, it gives me an error.

Answer 1

When using sp_rename which works like in above answers, check also which objects are affected after renaming, that reference that table, because you need to change those too

I took a code example for table dependencies at Pinal Dave's blog here

USE AdventureWorks
GO
SELECT
referencing_schema_name = SCHEMA_NAME(o.SCHEMA_ID),
referencing_object_name = o.name,
referencing_object_type_desc = o.type_desc,
referenced_schema_name,
referenced_object_name = referenced_entity_name,
referenced_object_type_desc = o1.type_desc,
referenced_server_name, referenced_database_name
--,sed.* -- Uncomment for all the columns
FROM
sys.sql_expression_dependencies sed
INNER JOIN
sys.objects o ON sed.referencing_id = o.[object_id]
LEFT OUTER JOIN
sys.objects o1 ON sed.referenced_id = o1.[object_id]
WHERE
referenced_entity_name = 'Customer'

So, all these dependent objects needs to be updated also

Or use some add-in if you can, some of them have feature to rename object, and all depend,ent objects too