How do I alter the precision of a decimal column in Sql Server?

Question

Is there a way to alter the precision of an existing decimal column in Sql Server?

Answer 1

Go to enterprise manager, design table, click on your field.

Make a decimal column

In the properties at the bottom there is a precision property

Answer 2

None that I'm aware of. You will have to modify your table the usual way (create a temp table, copy over the data, remove the old table, and finally rename the temp table).

UPDATE: This can of course be automated by the SQL Server Management Studio, follow the steps outlined by qui.

Answer 3

ALTER TABLE Testing ALTER COLUMN TestDec decimal(16,1)

Just put decimal(precision, scale) replacing the precision and scale with your desired values.

I haven't done any testing with this with data in the table, but if you alter the precision you would be subject to loosing data if the precision is lower.