"Paul Sampson" <psampson@uecomm.com.au> wrote in message news:<1061964209.790366@proxy.uecomm.net.au>...
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to run the ALTER TABLE command using a dynamic string for the
> table, like so:
>
> DECLARE @TableName CHAR
> SET @TableName = 'Customers'
> ALTER TABLE @TableName
> ADD ...blah
>
> Is this possible? We know this works:
>
> ALTER TABLE Customers ADD ...blah
>
> It looks like I need a way to convert the CHAR value to a literal or perhaps
> even a table ID?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Paul

"Paul Sampson" <psampson@uecomm.com.au> wrote in message
news:1061964209.790366@proxy.uecomm.net.au...
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to run the ALTER TABLE command using a dynamic string for the
> table, like so:
>
> DECLARE @TableName CHAR
> SET @TableName = 'Customers'
> ALTER TABLE @TableName
> ADD ...blah
>
> Is this possible? We know this works:
>
> ALTER TABLE Customers ADD ...blah
>
> It looks like I need a way to convert the CHAR value to a literal or
perhaps
> even a table ID?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Paul
>
>

"Simon Hayes" <sql@hayes.ch> wrote in message
news:60cd0137.0308270337.2bbb79e4@posting.google.com...
> "Paul Sampson" <psampson@uecomm.com.au> wrote in message
news:<1061964209.790366@proxy.uecomm.net.au>...
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm trying to run the ALTER TABLE command using a dynamic string for the
> > table, like so:
> >
> > DECLARE @TableName CHAR
> > SET @TableName = 'Customers'
> > ALTER TABLE @TableName
> > ADD ...blah
> >
> > Is this possible? We know this works:
> >
> > ALTER TABLE Customers ADD ...blah
> >
> > It looks like I need a way to convert the CHAR value to a literal or
perhaps
> > even a table ID?
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Paul
>
> You can use dynamic SQL:
>
> declare @tablename sysname
> set @tablename = 'Customers'
> exec('alter table dbo.' + @tablename + ' add ...')
>
> See here for more information on dynamic SQL:
>
> http://www.algonet.se/~sommar/dynamic_sql.html
>
> By the way, if you declare a variable as CHAR without a length, it
> will default to CHAR(1). For object names, sysname is a better choice.
>
> Simon