Ease Access database maintenance with the Alter Table command

by Mary Ann Richardson | Mar 14, 2006 8:00:00 AM

Tags: Databases, Microsoft Office, Mary Ann Richardson, ALTER TABLE, Employees Table, Microsoft Access, database, Microsoft Office Suite Access Tips Newsletter

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Takeaway: When you need to make a number of changes to your Access database, the Alter Table command can help. Learn how you can use the command to quickly add or delete fields in an Access table.

When you need to make a number of quick changes to your database, the Alter Table command can help. You can use the command to quickly add or delete fields in a table.

For example, to add a new Mobile_Phone field to the Employees table, follow these steps:

Open the database containing the Employees table, then click Queries in the objects list in the database window.
Click New, Design View, and OK.
Click Close.
Go to Query | SQL Specific | Data Definition.
Enter the following statement:
ALTER TABLE Employees ADD COLUMN Mobile_Phone TEXT
Click Run.

You can verify that the field was added by opening the Employees Table in Design View. To delete a field, you would use the following statement:
ALTER TABLE Employees DROP COLUMN Mobile_Phone.

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