Hi
Microsoft GUI is following best practice.
If you do it with alter table a new field is added to the table (old col invisible and not used but still takes up space). With other words you will get something like this
field 1 , field 2
int,char
active,active
after change
field 1,field 2, field 1
int,char,int
inactive,active,active
It will only change to normal after a reindex. Have a look at http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Design+and+Theory/67553/
very good post.
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Do not reinvent the wheel.
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