WITH VALUES TSQL

sql-server tsql default
TheWommies picture TheWommies · Sep 8, 2013 · Viewed 22.8k times · Source

I have been trying to understand what the WITH VALUES statement does?

I cant seem to find any documentation that explains it properly.

ALTER TABLE Table1 
ADD newGuidId UniqueIdentifier NULL CONSTRAINT DF_Guid Default newid()
with values

Answer

marc_s picture marc_s · Sep 8, 2013

When you add a nullable column with a default constraint to a table, then all existing rows will get the new column with a NULL as its value. The defined default values will only be applied to new rows being inserted (if they don't have a value for that column in their INSERT statement).

When you specify WITH VALUES, then all existing rows will get that defined default value instead of NULL

If the column you're adding to your new table is non-nullable and has a default constraint, then that default value is applied to all existing rows in the table automatically (no need for WITH VALUES because the column must have a value other than NULL)

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