Rename a Column in a Table in a SQL Server Database

This is a very simple script I am sharing today. A sqlservercurry.com user mailed me and asked me the simplest way to rename a column. Well here’s the query I have been using all along

USE Social;
GO
EXEC sp_rename 'dbo.Person.PersonName', 'PersonNm', 'COLUMN';
GO

This query renames the Column ‘PersonName’ in the Person table to ‘PersonNm’. Be careful while you do so, as you may affect Stored Procedures that use the column. Infact, when you run the query shown above, a caution gets displayed in your SQL Server Management Studio warning you of the change.

Caution: Changing any part of an object name could break scripts and stored procedures.

About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, MCSD, MCAD, MCDBA, MCSE, is the founder of DotNetCurry, DNC Magazine for Developers, SQLServerCurry and DevCurry. He has also authored a couple of books 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls and a new one recently at The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Suprotim has received the prestigous Microsoft MVP award for nine times in a row now. In a professional capacity, he is the CEO of A2Z Knowledge Visuals Pvt Ltd, a digital group that represents premium web sites and digital publications comprising of Professional web, windows, mobile and cloud developers, technical managers, and architects.

Get in touch with him on Twitter @suprotimagarwal, LinkedIn or befriend him on Facebook