How to add add columns in a SP and reference them in the same SP?

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How to add add columns in a SP and reference them in the same SP?

BIMind

SSChasing Mays

Points: 628
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April 19, 2010 at 2:01 pm

#231869

Hi All,
This might be a basic thing i am overlooking but i have a Stored procedure in which i have some
ALTER TABLE myTable add col1 int
ALTER TABLE myTable add col2 int
statements. I then use a insert statement right after the alter statements but i get a Col1 not found error. If i put a GO after the ALTER table statements, my variables declared at the start go out of scope.
What's a workaround for this?
Thanks

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LutzM SSC Guru Points: 107049 More actions · Answer 1

May I ask for the business reason for that requirement?

It sounds like a denormalized table (e.g. a monthly summary table with one column per month...)...

Lutz
A pessimist is an optimist with experience.

How to get fast answers to your question[/url]
How to post performance related questions[/url]
Links for Tally Table [/url] , Cross Tabs [/url] and Dynamic Cross Tabs [/url], Delimited Split Function[/url]

BIMind SSChasing Mays Points: 628 More actions · Answer 2

Its nothing complicated, simply a previous developer left code which i am converting to a stored proc. it has 2 parts and not all fields can be present during the first part. i could simply create a separate table before the stored proc but i thought i'd ask if its simply a basic thing i am overlooking or is it a bad coding principle to do so

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004646 More actions · Answer 3

It could be done with a little dynamic SQL provided that either the dynamic SQL was protected from SQL Injection or simply had nothing to do with any external parameters.

But, I have to agree... adding columns to a table in a stored procedure usually isn't the best idea. If you told us a bit more about why that's necessary, someone might be able to come up with a work around for you.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
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WILLIAM MITCHELL SSChampion Points: 13766 More actions · Answer 4

You can use this

EXEC sp_executesql N'ALTER TABLE myTable add col1 int'

but a better solution would be to modify the "part 1" code so you don't need to do this.