insert a NOT NULL column to an existing table

Question

I have tried:

ALTER TABLE MY_TABLE 
ADD STAGE INT NOT NULL;

But it gives this error message:

ALTER TABLE only allows columns to be added that can contain nulls or have a DEFAULT definition specified

Answer 1

As an option you can initially create Null-able column, then update your table column with valid not null values and finally ALTER column to set NOT NULL constraint:

ALTER TABLE MY_TABLE ADD STAGE INT NULL
GO
UPDATE MY_TABLE SET <a valid not null values for your column>
GO
ALTER TABLE MY_TABLE ALTER COLUMN STAGE INT NOT NULL
GO

Another option is to specify correct default value for your column:

ALTER TABLE MY_TABLE ADD STAGE INT NOT NULL DEFAULT '0'

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UPD: Please note that answer above contains GO which is a must when you run this code on Microsoft SQL server. If you want to perform the same operation on Oracle or MySQL you need to use semicolon ; like that:

ALTER TABLE MY_TABLE ADD STAGE INT NULL;
UPDATE MY_TABLE SET <a valid not null values for your column>;
ALTER TABLE MY_TABLE ALTER COLUMN STAGE INT NOT NULL;