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ALTER DATABASE (Transact-SQL)

Modifies a database, or the files and filegroups associated with the database. Adds or removes files and filegroups from a database, changes the attributes of a database or its files and filegroups, changes the database collation, and sets database options. Database snapshots cannot be modified. To modify database options associated with replication, use sp_replicationdboption.

Because of its length, the ALTER DATABASE syntax is separated into the following topics:

  • ALTER DATABASE
    The current topic provides the syntax for changing the name and the collation of a database.

  • ALTER DATABASE File and Filegroup Options
    Provides the syntax for adding and removing files and filegroups from a database, and for changing the attributes of the files and filegroups.

  • ALTER DATABASE SET Options
    Provides the syntax for changing the attributes of a database by using the SET options of ALTER DATABASE.

  • ALTER DATABASE Database Mirroring
    Provides the syntax for the SET options of ALTER DATABASE that are related to database mirroring.

  • ALTER DATABASE Compatibility Level
    Provides the syntax for the SET options of ALTER DATABASE that are related to database compatibility levels.

Topic link iconTransact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

ALTER DATABASE database_name 
{
  | MODIFY NAME =new_database_name 
  | COLLATE collation_name
  | <file_and_filegroup_options>
  | <set_database_options>
}
[;]

<file_and_filegroup_options >::=
  <add_or_modify_files>::=
  <filespec>::= 
  <add_or_modify_filegroups>::=
  <filegroup_updatability_option>::=<set_database_options>::=
  <optionspec>::= 
  <auto_option> ::= 
  <change_tracking_option> ::=
  <cursor_option> ::= 
  <database_mirroring_option> ::= 
  <date_correlation_optimization_option> ::=
  <db_encryption_option> ::=
  <db_state_option> ::=
  <db_update_option> ::=
  <db_user_access_option> ::=
  <external_access_option> ::=
  <parameterization_option> ::=
  <recovery_option> ::= 
  <service_broker_option> ::=
  <snapshot_option> ::=
  <sql_option> ::= 
  <termination> ::=

Arguments

  • database_name
    Is the name of the database to be modified.

  • MODIFY NAME **=**new_database_name
    Renames the database with the name specified as new_database_name.

  • COLLATE collation_name
    Specifies the collation for the database. collation_name can be either a Windows collation name or a SQL collation name. If not specified, the database is assigned the collation of the instance of SQL Server.

    For more information about the Windows and SQL collation names, see COLLATE (Transact-SQL).

<file_and_filegroup_options >::=

For more information, see ALTER DATABASE File and Filegroup Options (Transact-SQL).

<set_database_options >::=

For more information, see ALTER DATABASE SET Options (Transact-SQL).

Remarks

To remove a database, use DROP DATABASE.

To decrease the size of a database, use DBCC SHRINKDATABASE.

The ALTER DATABASE statement must run in autocommit mode (the default transaction management mode) and is not allowed in an explicit or implicit transaction. For more information, see Autocommit Transactions.

In SQL Server 2005 or later, the state of a database file (for example, online or offline), is maintained independently from the state of the database. For more information, see File States. The state of the files within a filegroup determines the availability of the whole filegroup. For a filegroup to be available, all files within the filegroup must be online. If a filegroup is offline, any try to access the filegroup by an SQL statement will fail with an error. When you build query plans for SELECT statements, the query optimizer avoids nonclustered indexes and indexed views that reside in offline filegroups. This enables these statements to succeed. However, if the offline filegroup contains the heap or clustered index of the target table, the SELECT statements fail. Additionally, any INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement that modifies a table with any index in an offline filegroup will fail.

When a database is in the RESTORING state, most ALTER DATABASE statements will fail. The exception is setting database mirroring options. A database may be in the RESTORING state during an active restore operation or when a restore operation of a database or log file fails because of a corrupted backup file. For more information, see Responding to SQL Server Restore Errors Caused by Damaged Backups.

The plan cache for the instance of SQL Server is cleared by setting one of the following options:

OFFLINE

READ_WRITE

ONLINE

MODIFY FILEGROUP DEFAULT

MODIFY_NAME

MODIFY FILEGROUP READ_WRITE

COLLATE

MODIFY FILEGROUP READ_ONLY

READ_ONLY

 

Clearing the plan cache causes a recompilation of all subsequent execution plans and can cause a sudden, temporary decrease in query performance. For each cleared cachestore in the plan cache, the SQL Server error log contains the following informational message: "SQL Server has encountered %d occurrence(s) of cachestore flush for the '%s' cachestore (part of plan cache) due to some database maintenance or reconfigure operations". This message is logged every five minutes as long as the cache is flushed within that time interval. 

Changing the Database Collation

Before you apply a different collation to a database, make sure that the following conditions are in place:

  1. You are the only one currently using the database.

  2. No schema-bound object depends on the collation of the database.

    If the following objects, which depend on the database collation, exist in the database, the ALTER DATABASEdatabase_nameCOLLATE statement will fail. SQL Server will return an error message for each object blocking the ALTER action:

    • User-defined functions and views created with SCHEMABINDING.

    • Computed columns.

    • CHECK constraints.

    • Table-valued functions that return tables with character columns with collations inherited from the default database collation.

    Dependency information for non-schema-bound entities is automatically updated when the database collation is changed. For more information, see Understanding SQL Dependencies.

  3. Changing the database collation does not create duplicates among any system names for the database objects.

    The following namespaces may cause the failure of a database collation change if duplicate names result from the changed collation:

    • Object names such as a procedure, table, trigger, or view.

    • Schema names

    • Principals such as a group, role, or user.

    • Scalar-type names such as system and user-defined types.

    • Full-text catalog names.

    • Column or parameter names within an object.

    • Index names within a table.

    Duplicate names resulting from the new collation will cause the change action to fail, and SQL Server will return an error message specifying the namespace where the duplicate was found.

Viewing Database Information

You can use catalog views, system functions, and system stored procedures to return information about databases, files, and filegroups. For more information, see Viewing Database Metadata.

Permissions

Requires ALTER permission on the database.

Examples

A. Changing the name of a database

The following example changes the name of the AdventureWorks database to Northwind.

USE master;
GO
ALTER DATABASE AdventureWorks
Modify Name = Northwind ;
GO

B. Changing the collation of a database

The following example creates a database named testdb with the SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation, and then changes the collation of the testdb database to COLLATE French_CI_AI.

USE master;
GO

CREATE DATABASE testdb
COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS ;
GO

ALTER DATABASE testDB
COLLATE French_CI_AI ;
GO