Comments on: SQL SERVER – How to Rename a Column Name or Table Name

By: Sunil Sharma

Sunil Sharma — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:57:15 +0000

thank u……….

By: Rick M.

Rick M. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:13:26 +0000

Thanks pinaldave for a great blog! So much useful information you’ve gained through hard experience you share with us all!

Here’s a note I would like to add to this article. Do not use square brackets in your target column name or it will put them in there literally! For example:

sp_rename ‘[my table].[my col]‘, ‘[my col2]‘, ‘COLUMN’

is WRONG! Instead say:

sp_rename ‘[my table].[my col]‘, ‘my col2′, ‘COLUMN’

And what to do if you have columns with brackets that need renaming? You have to use 2 brackets up front and 3 brackets behind!!

sp_rename ‘[my table].[[my col2]]]’, ‘my col2′, ‘COLUMN’

Another thing, I figured out this syntax by trial and error (on SQL Server 2008.) It also is needed when doing an aggregate on a column with brackets in its name:

select SUM([[my col2]]])

By: khaled khelawy

khaled khelawy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:55:05 +0000

thx sir

By: Eloise

Eloise — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:21:57 +0000

This is a great find, but it’s not exactly what I need.

We’re looking at upgrading our servers from 2005 to 2008. This will also involve a name change for our servers. Is there an easy way we can update the cross server links in our views, sp etc withouth having to go into each view and sp?

Thanks,

Eloise

By: Vikul

Vikul — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:24:52 +0000

Thanks for this information

By: Manish

Manish — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:48:12 +0000

thanks sir,
it was urgent to me find the ans. for my exam

By: Uttam

Uttam — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:54:21 +0000

Thanks Brian Sir.
It really helped.
Really appreciate your quick help.
THanks once again.

By: Brian Tkatch

Brian Tkatch — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:33:18 +0000

@Uttam

Use the visual editor. Right click on the TABLE and choose “design”. You can change the name there.

By: Uttam

Uttam — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:56:17 +0000

I have used the renaming mistakenly and my column name now looks like this “[column]” without the quotation mark but including the [] charecters. How can I reissue the command to rename the column? what escape sequence should I use.

eg:: if coloumn name is txtname
after renaming using sp_rename with new coloumn name it is showing [txtname_new].

Now I cant even retrieve the values for that coloumn.
Please help me guys on this…

Thanks in advance.

By: Pulkit

Pulkit — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:48:34 +0000

i want 2 change a column name that contains a point(.). e.g . using the sp_rename it is giving an error. plz. solve d problem guys

By: mistake

mistake — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:39:20 +0000

By: Robert Cain

Robert Cain — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:56:22 +0000

Once again Pinal Dave’s blog to the rescue! Thanks again for a great blog.

By: Bushy

Bushy — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:56:02 +0000

Thanx a lot these is really helpfull, You really can make articles very simple to understand….

By: Rashmi

Rashmi — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:44:54 +0000

This is really useful info
Thanks for providing very good and to the point info

By: vamsi

vamsi — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:01:03 +0000

Hi Pinal,
I think there is no need to pass third parameter as ‘column’ for renaming the column.

sp_rename ‘Table_First.Name’, NameChange

i have just tried without mentioning ‘column’ and it works fine.
May i know what is the importance of the third parameter ‘column’? Is it required or not?

By: pramod

pramod — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:28:41 +0000

Hi pinal,

thnx for the info.

By: Shital Kasliwal

Shital Kasliwal — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:13:20 +0000

Hi,
This Script is Running Correctly.

Thanks Sir.

By: Sunder

Sunder — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:52:12 +0000

thanx sir this is very nice

By: Ramesh

Ramesh — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 07:36:54 +0000

hi,

i want to rename the table column using sql queries. can anyone help me ?

Thanks,
Ramesh

By: ritesh

ritesh — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:44:46 +0000

hii….bhai tera bahut bahut dhanyawad….