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Asked: 2026-05-27T14:23:36+00:00

I want to alter the type of a column from bit to tinyint. This

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I want to alter the type of a column from bit to tinyint. This is my SQL:

ALTER TABLE table ALTER COLUMN column TINYINT NOT NULL

This tells me that there is a constraint for column. I dropped the constraint, but is this really necessary? Whats the right way to do this? I think afterwards I need a constraint, too.

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  1. Editorial Team

    Yes this was necessary.

    A constraint on a BIT field can’t possibly work on a tinyint field since they are different datatypes.

    The BIT value of 1 doesn’t mean “The number one”, it indicates true or yes or on.

    It’s as if you had a rule:

    This value needs to be a date between 1/1/2010 and 12/31/2010

    …and then you changed the value to be a decimal datatype. The decimal can’t possibly meet the criteria of the constraint.

    Before DDL operations you must disable constraints since they may be invalid after the change.

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