Creating Altering and Deleting Tables in SQL server

1. What is SQL?
2. Understanding SQL Sub Languages
3. Data Definition Language in SQL Server.
4. Create Command in SQL Server
5. Alter Command in SQL Server
6. Truncate Command in SQL Server.
7. Drop Command in SQL Server.
8. What are the differences between the delete and truncate
commands in SQL Server?

What is SQL?

1. It is a non-procedural language that is used to communicate with any

database such as Oracle, SQL Server, etc.
2. This Language was developed by the German Scientist Mr. E.F.Codd
in 1968
3. ANSI (American National Standard Institute) approved this concept
and in 1972 SQL was released into the market
4. SQL is also called Sequel it stands for Structured Query Language,
5. The sequel will provide a common language interface facility it
means that a sequel is a language that can communicate with any
type of database such as SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, Sybase, BD2,
etc.
6. SQL is not a case-sensitive language it means that all the commands
of SQL are not case sensitive
7. Every command of SQL should end with a semicolon (;) (It is optional
for SQL Server)
8. SQL can be called NLI (Natural Language Interface). It means that all
the SQL Commands are almost similar to normal English language

SQL Sub Languages:

SQL contains the following sublanguages
1. DDL (5 commands- create, alter, sp_rename, drop, truncate)
2. DML (3 commands- Insert, Update, Delete).
 3. DQL/ DRL (1 command- select).
4. TCL (3 commands- commit, rollback, savepoint)
5. DCL (2 commands- Grant, Revoke).

Data Definition Language (DDL):

1. Data Definition Language (DDL) is used to define database objects

such as tables, synonyms, views, procedures, functions, triggers, etc.
that means DDL statements are used to alter/modify a database or
table structure and schema
2. DDL commands are working on the structure of a table, not on the
data of a table.
3. This language contains five commands. Those are (CREATE, ALTER,
SP_RENAME, TRUNCATE, DROP)

Create Command in SQL Server:

The CREATE command is used to create a new database object in a database such
as tables, views, functions, etc. In SQL Server, all database objects (tables, views,
etc) are saved with an extension of “dbo.<object name>”. The syntax to create a
database is shown below.

Example: The following Create command creates a table called Student.

CREATE TABLE student
(
studid INT,
sname VARCHAR(max),
salary DECIMAL(6, 2)
)
Rules for creating a table in SQL Server:

1. The table name should be unique under a database.

While creating a database in SQL Server, you need to follow the below rules.
1. The table name should be unique under a database.
2. The column name should be unique within the table definition.
3. A Table name should not start with numeric and special characters
except the (-) underscore symbol.
4. Don’t provide space in the table name. If you want to provide space
in a table name then you can use the underscore symbol.
5. A table name should contain a minimum of 1 character and a
maximum of 128 characters.
6. A table should contain a minimum of 1 column and a maximum of
1024 columns.

Alter Command in SQL Server:

This command is used to change or modify the structure of a table. In SQL Server,
using the ALTER command we can perform the following operations on an
existing table.

1. Increase/decrease the width of a column.

2. Change the data type of a column.
3. Change the NOT NULL to NULL or NULL to NOT NULL.
4. Used to add a new column to an existing table.
5. Used to drop an existing column.
6. We can add a new constraint.
7. It can drop an existing constraint on a table.
8. Disable or re-enable check constraint of a table.
9. Changing a column name in the table.

Example:
To understand the use of ALTER command in SQL Server, let’s first create the
following Student table.

CREATE TABLE Student

(
No INT,
Name VARCHAR(50)
)

ALTER-ALTER COLUMN:

This command is used to change a data type from an old data type to a new data
type and also to change the size of a data type of a column.
Syntax: ALTER TABLE <TABLENAME> ALTER COLUMN <COLUMNNAME> <NEW
DATA TYPE>[NEW SIZE]

Change the width of a column

In our student table, the column Name width is VARCHAR(50). Let’s change the
width to VARCHAR (100). To do so, we need to use the Alter command as shown
below.

ALTER TABLE Student ALTER COLUMN Name VARCHAR(100)

Note: When you increase the width of a column, you won’t face any problem but
while decreasing the width if the table contains data in it we cannot decrease the
width less than the max existing characters in the column.

Changing the data type of an existing column.

If you want to change the data type of an existing column, then you can use the
ALTER command. For example, currently, the Name column data type is VARCHAR
and our requirement is to change the data type from VARCHAR to NVARCHAR. To
do so, you need to use the ALTER command as shown below.

ALTER TABLE Student ALTER COLUMN Name NVARCHAR(100)

Changing the column NULL to NOT NULL.

If you want to change a NULL column to NOT NULL then you can use the ALTER
command. When you create a column without NULL or NOT NULL constraint,
then by default it is NULL. It means this column can accept NULL values. Suppose,
you want to change the No column from NULL to NOT NULL, then you need to use
the ALTER Command as shown below.

ALTER TABLE Student ALTER COLUMN No INT NOT NULL

Changing NOT NULL to NULL.

If you want to change a NOT NULL column to NULL then also you can use the
ALTER command. For example, if you want to change the No column from NOT
NULL to NULL, then you can use the ALTER Command as shown below.

ALTER TABLE Student ALTER COLUMN No INT NULL

Adding a new column to an existing table in SQL Server:

If you want to add a new column to an existing table, then you can use the ALTER
Command. The syntax to use the command to add a new column is given below.

ALTER TABLE <TABLENAME> ADD <NEWCOLUMNNAME> <DATA TYPE>[NEW

SIZE]

Suppose, you want to add the Branch column to the existing Student table. Then
you need to use the ALter command as shown below.

ALTER TABLE Student ADD Branch VARCHAR(20)

Deleting Column in SQL Server:

If you want to delete an existing column from a table in SQL Server, then you
need to use the ALTER Command. The syntax to use the ALTER command to
delete or drop a column is given below.

ALTER TABLE <TABLENAME> DROP COLUMN <COLUMNNAME>

For example, if you want to delete or drop the Brach column from the Student
table, then you need to use the ALTER command as shown below.
ALTER TABLE Student DROP COLUMN Branch

SP_RENAME Command in SQL Server:

SP stands for the stored procedure and here SP_RENAME is a system-defined
stored procedure. This stored procedure is used to change the column name. The
syntax to use this procedure is given below

SP_RENAME ‘<TABLE NAME>.<OLD COLUMN NAME>’, ‘NEW COLUMN NAME’

Suppose, you want to change the name column from Name to StudentName,
then you need to use this stored procedure as shown below.

SP_RENAME ‘Student.Name’, ‘StudentName‘

This SP_RENAME stored procedure can also be used to change a table name from
the old table name to a new name. The syntax to change the table name using
SP_RENAME stored procedure is given below.

SP_RENAME ‘OLD TABLE NAME’, ‘NEW TABLE NAME’

For example, if you want to change the table name from Student to
StudentDetails, then you need to use the SP_RENAME stored procedure as shown
below:

SP_RENAME ‘Student‘, ‘StudentDetails’

Truncate Command in SQL Server:

Whenever you want to delete all the records or rows from a table without any
condition, then you need to use the Truncate command in SQL Server. So, using
this command you cannot delete specific records from the table because the
truncate command does not support the “where” clause. The syntax to use the
TRUNCATE command is given below.

TRUNCATE TABLE <TABLENAME>

Suppose, you want to delete all the records from the Student table, then you
need to use the TRUNCATE command as shown below in SQL Server.
TRUNCATE TABLE Student

Note: The truncate command will delete rows but not the structure of the table.

Drop Command in SQL Server:

If you want to delete the table from the database, then you need to use the DROP
command in SQL Server. The syntax to use the DROP command is given below.
DROP TABLE <OBJECT NAME>
Suppose, you want to delete the Student table from the database, then you need
to use the DROP command as shown below.
DROP TABLE Student
Note: When a table is dropped all the dependent constraint which are associated
with the table also gets dropped. We cannot drop a master table.
What are the differences between Delete and Truncate Command in SQL
Server?
Delete Truncate

It is a DML command. It is a DDL command

By using the delete command we can delete a

specific record from the table. But it is not possible with truncate command

Delete supports WHERE clause. Truncate does not support the WHERE claus

It is a temporary deletion It is a permanent deletion

Delete supports rollback transactions for Truncate doesn’t support rollback transactio
restoring the deleted data. cannot restore the deleted information

Delete command will not reset identity

property. But it will reset the identity property