> I need to change a varchar from 35 to 50. In the SQL Server books on
> line it says that SQL Server actually creates a new table when you
> change the length. I ran a test in a test database and it appears the
> only thing that changes is the length. All the data remains in tact.
>
> The table with the column I want to modify is very critical. Is there
> any chance I would loose data if I change the length to a larger size? I
> am making a back up of the table just in case. Thanks,

"Erland Sommarskog" <sommar@algonet.se> wrote in message
news:Xns9442489D4AB0Yazorman@127.0.0.1...
> Kelly Prendergast (kelly.prendergast@noaa.gov) writes:
> > I need to change a varchar from 35 to 50. In the SQL Server books on
> > line it says that SQL Server actually creates a new table when you
> > change the length. I ran a test in a test database and it appears the
> > only thing that changes is the length. All the data remains in tact.
> >
> > The table with the column I want to modify is very critical. Is there
> > any chance I would loose data if I change the length to a larger size? I
> > am making a back up of the table just in case. Thanks,
>
> If you use "ALTER TABLE tbl ALTER COLUMN col varchar(50)"
> all that will happens is that metadata will be updated, which will occur
> in a snap. If you were to change a char(35) column to char(50), I
> would expect it to be different, because in this case SQL Server would
> move around data to leave room for the value.

>
>
>
> --
> Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, sommar@algonet.se
>
> Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
> http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/productdoc/2000/books.asp