ALTER TABLE WITH (ONLINE=ON | OFF) T-SQL Enhancement in SQL Server 2016

SQL Server 2016 introduces an interesting T-SQL enhancement to improve performance and reduce downtime ALTER TABLE WITH (ONLINE = ON | OFF). This statement will help you alter data types, change column/table collation values, change nullability settings, change column length, and many other options while the table remains online for user connectivity.

This is Part 4 of 10 Part T-SQL Enhancements in SQL Server 2016 for Developers and DBAs. Click here to read it from the beginning….

However, this feature is turned off by default in SQL Server 2016. In case, if you wish to utilise this feature then you would need to specify ALTER TABLE WITH (ONLINE = ON) option.

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Example ALTER TABLE WITH (ONLINE = ON | OFF)

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS ProductPrice
GO
CREATE TABLE ProductPrice (Price INT)
GO

INSERT INTO ProductPrice (Price) VALUES (1250);
INSERT INTO ProductPrice (Price) VALUES (1252);
INSERT INTO ProductPrice (Price) VALUES (1254);
INSERT INTO ProductPrice (Price) VALUES (1256);
INSERT INTO ProductPrice (Price) VALUES (1258);

ALTER TABLE ProductPrice
ALTER COLUMN Price DECIMAL (5, 2) WITH (ONLINE = ON)
GO

SELECT Price FROM ProductPrice
GO	

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• ALTER TABLE WITH (ONLINE = ON | OFF)