sean redmond (7/28/2009)
Wouldn't shrinking the DB also reclaim the space lost by the dropped column?
Frankly, I have no idea. I guess I could test but I can't really be bothered. I prefer not to shrink me databases at all, because shrinking comes with a bucketload of undesired side effects.
See http://www.karaszi.com/SQLServer/info_dont_shrink.asp for the gory details.