ALTER TABLE my_table ADD COLUMN column_name VARCHAR（50）在SQL Server 2000中不支持col_name

Question

I tried the following query in SQL Server 2000 so that I could add a new column after mentioned column.

alter table abc ADD dad varchar(50) after parentname

But it throws me the following error message

Msg 170, Level 15, State 1, Line 1
Line 1: Incorrect syntax near 'after'.

Is there any way to do this in SQL Server 2000?

Answer 1

In SQL Server there is no syntax such.

Just use

ALTER TABLE abc ADD dad varchar(50)

Answer 2

Short answer: there is no order in a table.

A table is a set (an unordered collection) of records, each of which is a set of fields. This is why RDBMS theory prefers the words "record" and "field" rather than "row" and "column".

If you look at a page of data (for example, by using DBCC PAGE in MSSQL) you will see that the storage order of the fields does not correspond to the order you specified in the CREATE TABLE statement.

Ordering is imposed by a SELECT statement.

My advice is to stop spending energy and time on the neatness of the CREATE TABLE and spend it on the SELECT statements instead.