adding new column

ALTER TABLE BFTITLE ADD COLUMN [RATETYPE] [NUMERIC] (10) NOT NULL ;
syntax is not working so can any one tell the right syntaxalter Table Bftitle Add [ratetype] [numeric] (10) Not Null|||Read BOL (SQL Server Books On Line) carefully. If a table already has rows in it, it isn't possible to add a NOT NULL column unless you also give the column a default value too (if you think about it, this only makes sense). I'm guessing on this, but I'd suggest trying:ALTER TABLE BFTITLE
ADD COLUMN [RATETYPE] [NUMERIC] (10) NOT NULL
DEFAULT 0-PatP|||ALTER TABLE BFTITLE
ADD COLUMN [RATETYPE] [NUMERIC] (10) NOT NULL
DEFAULT 0
-PatP

Close. This worked for me:

ALTER TABLE BFTITLE
ADD [RATETYPE] [NUMERIC] (10) NOT NULL
DEFAULT 0

I just removed "COLUMN" from your statement. Funny, I did not think it would be possible to add a non-nullable column, but you're right it can be done as long as you define a default value.

Following is proof:

create table foo (bar int)
go

insert foo (bar) values (1)
go
insert foo (bar) values (2)
go
insert foo (bar) values (3)
go
insert foo (bar) values (4)
go

ALTER TABLE foo
ADD [RATETYPE] [NUMERIC] (10) NOT NULL
DEFAULT 0

select * from foo

sp_columns foo