Question

I have a Product table in which I want to create a new columns Modified_By and Modified_Date_Time. These columns do not allow nulls.

However, as the database already has data, in order to create this column, I had to defined as “allowing nulls”. Then, I run a process which updated the new column. The last step was to uncheck the “Allow nulls” property, but when I tried to save the table changes, I got the following error:

‘Product_Details’ table
– Unable to modify table.
Cannot insert the value NULL into column ‘Modified_Date_Time’, table ‘Vendor Products.dbo.Tmp_Product_Details’; column does not allow nulls. INSERT fails.
The statement has been terminated.

All the rows were succesfully updated with the correct value in the “Modified_By” and “Modified_Date_Time” column, so I don’t know why I get this error…Anyway, it seems like a new “temporary” table was created by SQL Server 2008, because I don’t have any table with the name “Tmp_Orders”

Answer 1

ALTER TABLE {TABLENAME} 
    ADD {COLUMNNAME} {TYPE} {NOT NULL} 
    CONSTRAINT {CONSTRAINT_NAME} DEFAULT {DEFAULT_VALUE}

You have to set a default value.

ALTER TABLE Product ADD Modified_By datetime DEFAULT (GETDATE())

The default value will be set to today.