Syntax:
ALTER TABLE {TABLENAME}
ADD {COLUMNNAME} {TYPE} {NULL|NOT NULL}
CONSTRAINT {CONSTRAINT_NAME} DEFAULT {DEFAULT_VALUE}
WITH VALUES
Example:
ALTER TABLE SomeTable
ADD SomeCol Bit NULL --Or NOT NULL.
CONSTRAINT D_SomeTable_SomeCol --When Omitted a Default-Constraint Name is autogenerated.
DEFAULT (0)--Optional Default-Constraint.
WITH VALUES --Add if Column is Nullable and you want the Default Value for Existing Records.
Notes:
Optional Constraint Name:
If you leave out CONSTRAINT D_SomeTable_SomeCol
then SQL Server will autogenerate
a Default-Contraint with a funny Name like: DF__SomeTa__SomeC__4FB7FEF6
Optional With-Values Statement:
The WITH VALUES
is only needed when your Column is Nullable
and you want the Default Value used for Existing Records.
If your Column is NOT NULL
, then it will automatically use the Default Value
for all Existing Records, whether you specify WITH VALUES
or not.
How Inserts work with a Default-Constraint:
If you insert a Record into SomeTable
and do not Specify SomeCol
's value, then it will Default to 0
.
If you insert a Record and Specify SomeCol
's value as NULL
(and your column allows nulls),
then the Default-Constraint will not be used and NULL
will be inserted as the Value.
Notes were based on everyone's great feedback below.
Special Thanks to:
@Yatrix, @WalterStabosz, @YahooSerious, and @StackMan for their Comments.
I see many people use subqueries or else window functions to do this, but I often do this kind of query without subqueries in the following way. It uses plain, standard SQL so it should work in any brand of RDBMS.
SELECT t1.*
FROM mytable t1
LEFT OUTER JOIN mytable t2
ON (t1.UserId = t2.UserId AND t1."Date" < t2."Date")
WHERE t2.UserId IS NULL;
In other words: fetch the row from t1
where no other row exists with the same UserId
and a greater Date.
(I put the identifier "Date" in delimiters because it's an SQL reserved word.)
In case if t1."Date" = t2."Date"
, doubling appears. Usually tables has auto_inc(seq)
key, e.g. id
.
To avoid doubling can be used follows:
SELECT t1.*
FROM mytable t1
LEFT OUTER JOIN mytable t2
ON t1.UserId = t2.UserId AND ((t1."Date" < t2."Date")
OR (t1."Date" = t2."Date" AND t1.id < t2.id))
WHERE t2.UserId IS NULL;
Re comment from @Farhan:
Here's a more detailed explanation:
An outer join attempts to join t1
with t2
. By default, all results of t1
are returned, and if there is a match in t2
, it is also returned. If there is no match in t2
for a given row of t1
, then the query still returns the row of t1
, and uses NULL
as a placeholder for all of t2
's columns. That's just how outer joins work in general.
The trick in this query is to design the join's matching condition such that t2
must match the same userid
, and a greater date
. The idea being if a row exists in t2
that has a greater date
, then the row in t1
it's compared against can't be the greatest date
for that userid
. But if there is no match -- i.e. if no row exists in t2
with a greater date
than the row in t1
-- we know that the row in t1
was the row with the greatest date
for the given userid
.
In those cases (when there's no match), the columns of t2
will be NULL
-- even the columns specified in the join condition. So that's why we use WHERE t2.UserId IS NULL
, because we're searching for the cases where no row was found with a greater date
for the given userid
.
Best Answer
You need to query the data dictionary, specifically the
USER_CONS_COLUMNS
view to see the table columns and corresponding constraints:FYI, unless you specifically created your table with a lower case name (using double quotes) then the table name will be defaulted to upper case so ensure it is so in your query.
If you then wish to see more information about the constraint itself query the
USER_CONSTRAINTS
view:If the table is held in a schema that is not your default schema then you might need to replace the views with:
and
adding to the where clause: