At 02:16 PM 08-06-00 +0000, you wrote:

>What is the command syntax for defining a default value to an
>existing column on a Interbase 6.0 table on WISQL ?
>I tried something like:
>
>ALTER TABLE ORDERS ALTER COLUMN OR_SITUATION TYPE VARCHAR(8)
>DEFAULT '10000000';
>
>but it always returns a SQL error.
>
>Thank you in advance,
>
>Paulo

You can't alter a column.
This is what you have to do:
1. Add a new column of the same data type
ALTER TABLE ORDERS ADD NEWCOLUMN VARCHAR(8);
2. Park the data from the old column in the new column:
UPDATE ORDERS SET NEWCOLUMN=OR_SITUATION;
3. Replace nulls with the default value
UPDATE ORDERS SET NEWCOLUMN='1000000' WHERE NEWCOLUMN IS NULL;
4. Drop the old column
ALTER TABLE ORDERS DROP OR_SITUATION;
5. Recreate the old column
ALTER TABLE ORDERS ADD OR_SITUATION VARCHAR(8) NOT NULL DEFAULT '10000000';
6. Move the data back
UPDATE ORDERS SET OR_SITUATION=NEWCOLUMN;
7. Drop the temporary column
ALTER TABLE ORDERS DROP NEWCOLUMN;

If you don't need the Not Null constraint, you can cut out a couple of
steps here..

HB
http://www.interbase2000.org
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