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Asked: 2026-05-10T16:36:15+00:00

Often we need to add a non-nullable column to a table, and it is

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Often we need to add a non-nullable column to a table, and it is quite a mission. Using a default constraint as is doesn’t work, so we have to create nullable columns, update them to default values, then make them non-nullable. Is there not an easier way to do this?

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  1. Yes, the WITH VALUES modifier to a DEFAULT constraint applies the default value to existing rows, eliminating all the ‘hard’ work described in the question.

    IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.columns WHERE object_id=OBJECT_ID('[caConfig]') AND [Name]='ExportWizardVersion') ALTER TABLE [caConfig]      ADD          [ExportWizardVersion] varchar(5) not null CONSTRAINT DF_caConfig_ExportWizardVersion DEFAULT '5.8' WITH VALUES,         [ExportPeriodEnd] varchar(10) not null CONSTRAINT DF_caConfig_ExportPeriodEnd DEFAULT 'MonthEnd' WITH VALUES
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