altering a column to be nullable

Question

I want to alter a table column to be nullable. I have used:

ALTER TABLE Merchant_Pending_Functions Modify NumberOfLocations NULL

This gives an error at Modify. Can someone tell me why? Please!!

Answer 1

Assuming SQL Server (based on your previous questions):

ALTER TABLE Merchant_Pending_Functions ALTER COLUMN NumberOfLocations INT NULL

Replace INT with your actual datatype.

Answer 2

Although I don't know what RDBMS you are using, you probably need to give the whole column specification, not just say that you now want it to be nullable. For example, if it's currently INT NOT NULL, you should issue ALTER TABLE Merchant_Pending_Functions Modify NumberOfLocations INT.

Answer 3

As others have observed, the precise syntax for the command varies across different flavours of DBMS. The syntax you use works in Oracle:

SQL> desc MACAddresses
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 COMPUTER                                           NUMBER
 MACADDRESS                                         VARCHAR2(12)
 CORRECTED_MACADDRESS                      NOT NULL VARCHAR2(17)

SQL> alter table MACAddresses
  2       modify corrected_MACAddress null
  3  /

Table altered.

SQL> desc MACAddresses
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 COMPUTER                                           NUMBER
 MACADDRESS                                         VARCHAR2(12)
 CORRECTED_MACADDRESS                               VARCHAR2(17)

SQL>