Question

I am having trouble with a ALTER TABLE command that I am trying to use on a MS Access database in a C# project. I am trying to rename a column and change the type at the same time.

Here is my command:

string sqlCommand = "ALTER TABLE " + tableName + " CHANGE [" + oldColName + "] [" 
    + newColName + "] " + colType;

What is wrong in this command and what do I need to do to make this it work?

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*Edits:

-The type and the names of the table, new column and old column are not the problem!

-The exception that is catched is :

Syntax error in ALTER TABLE statement.

-The final string looks like this:

ALTER TABLE [Big List] CHANGE [num] [test] CHARACTER

-Connection provider:

Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0

Answer 1

I don’t think you can rename a column with SQL and access.

The best way to achieve this is to create a new column with the new name, update the new column and drop the old one.

ALTER  TABLE [Big List] ADD COLUMN [num] YOURTYPE;
UPDATE [Big List] SET [num] = [test];
ALTER  TABLE [Big List] DROP COLUMN [test];