Question

How to drop a column which is having Default constraint in SQL Server 2008?

My query is

alter table tbloffers
drop column checkin

I am getting below error

ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN checkin failed because one or more objects access this column.

Can anyone correct my query to drop a column with constraint?

Answer 1

First you should drop the problematic DEFAULT constraint, after that you can drop the column

alter table tbloffers drop constraint [ConstraintName]
go

alter table tbloffers drop column checkin

But the error may appear from other reasons – for example the user defined function or view with SCHEMABINDING option set for them.

UPD:
Completely automated dropping of constraints script:

DECLARE @sql NVARCHAR(MAX)
WHILE 1=1
BEGIN
    SELECT TOP 1 @sql = N'alter table tbloffers drop constraint ['+dc.NAME+N']'
    from sys.default_constraints dc
    JOIN sys.columns c
        ON c.default_object_id = dc.object_id
    WHERE 
        dc.parent_object_id = OBJECT_ID('tbloffers')
    AND c.name = N'checkin'
    IF @@ROWCOUNT = 0 BREAK
    EXEC (@sql)
END