>I want to write an update program to update a table one of my products and i need to add a field between field 4 and 5,How?
>i write this code but it add that field at the bottom of fields :
>

>Alter Table contacts Add cdate c(10)
>

Normally the order of fields should not be that important. You can have the field at any place.

On the other hand, to update table structures, I have used this general strategy, which covers practically most cases:

Do the changes manually (modify structure, etc.), in an empty copy of the database. That is, all tables have zero records.

Have a program that combines the empty structure with the production data. Basically:

Make a copy of the empty structure to a temporary directory.

Do an APPEND FROM for each table (from the production data, to the temporary directory).

(Note that for a parent-child relation, the parent has to be copied first.)

Make a backup of the production data.

Copy the temporary directory over the production data.

If there are absolutely no changes in the structure for a certain table, that table (plus index, plus memo) can be copied as files, which is much faster. But detecting changes in structure is fairly complicated - there are several things you have to check.

All this is more complicated than what you are asking for, but it doesn't require a special update program for every individual change, so it is much simpler in the long-term.

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