Product articles

Problems with adding NOT NULL columns or making nullable columns NOT NULL (EI028)

Phil Factor explains the problems you might encounter when adding a non-nullable column to an existing table or altering a column that contains NULL values to be non-nullable. He demos a migration script that can deploy such changes safely. You might also learn that in an archaic form of the Scots language, used in Cumberland, the number 17 is "tiny bumfit"; I think the tiny bumfit bus goes from Penrith to Carlisle. Read more

Database Build Blockers: Mutually Dependent Databases

Phil Factor demonstrates a clever way to create 'stub' objects, in SQL Change Automation pre-deployment scripts, in order to overcome the problems caused by 'missing objects' when building databases that have circular, or mutual, dependencies. In the subsequent deployment, SQL Change Automation fully builds every object in each of the databases, so all dependencies are fully tested. Read more