Quickly Add and Drop a Column from all Tables in SQL Server

If you have been looking out for a quick way to add and drop a column from all the tables in SQL Server, then here’s the query for it. I will use an undocumented stored procedure sp_MSforeachtable for this purpose

USE Northwind
GO
-- Add a Column to all tables
EXEC sp_MSforeachtable 'ALTER TABLE ? ADD ColumnTemp varchar(10) NULL'

-- Remove a Column from all tables
EXEC sp_MSforeachtable 'ALTER TABLE ? DROP COLUMN ColumnTemp'

The query shown above adds the column ‘ColumnTemp’ to all tables in the Northwind database. Similar the ‘ColumnTemp’ is then removed from all the tables.

Note: While removing a column, I am assuming there are no constraints defined.

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About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, ASP.NET Architecture MVP works as an Architect Consultant and provides consultancy on how to design and develop Web applications.

Suprotim is also the founder and primary contributor to DevCurry, DotNetCurry and SQLServerCurry. He has also written an EBook 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls.

Follow him on twitter @suprotimagarwal

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