This is a problem I'm having with 'Beginning SQL Programming' (which I can;t see listed on this site anywhere...?)

Exercise at Chapter 6, P.179 instructs you to use the code:

ALTER TABLE InsurPlans
ALTER FIELD InsurPlanName VARCHAR(20);

via the Query Analyser to change the InsurPlanName field Data Type.

However, I'm getting the response:

Server: Msg 170, Level 15, State 1, Line 2
Line 2: Incorrect syntax near 'FIELD'.

Fairly sure I'm not making a typo!!

Any ideas?

Hmmm...If I replace the word FIELD with COLUMN it goes through fine.

Mithrandir,

Try replacing the word FIELD with the word COLUMN

ALTER TABLE InsurPlans
ALTER COLUMN InsurPlanName VARCHAR(20);

ALTER TABLE InsurPlans
ALTER COLUMN InsurPlanName VARCHAR(20);

I think you should change ALTER FIELD to ALTER COLUMN.

The code should be:

ALTER TABLE InsurPlans
ALTER COLUMN InsurPlanName VARCHAR(20);

How would you alter multiple columns? I cad add and drop columns without any errors, but when I try to ALTER COLUMN multiple columns, I get an error:

[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'COLUMN'.

Here is my code:

Conn.Execute " ALTER TABLE tblAccts ALTER COLUMN contAddr2 NVARCHAR(255) "&_
                    " ALTER COLUMN contCity NVARCHAR(150)"

I tried separating columns by commas, semicolons and spaces, but nothing seems to be working.