>>>>>>>I've looked at Help on ALTER TABLE and I don't see if it requires exclusive access or not.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Yes it is
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Is there any other way to change the structure of the existing table?
>>>>
>>>>Nope, you are changing the table structure :-) not a value of the field.
>>>
>>>Yes, thanks - for a minute I thought there may be way around it. BTW, how can we set (check) for the default value of the field?
>>
>>

>>ALTER TABLE ALTER COLUMN TheColum [type and size goes here] DEFAULT .....
>>

>>
>>Check:
>>

>>AFIELDS(laFields,alias)
>>lnField = ASCAN(laFields,[FieldName], 1,-1, 1, 1+6)
>>? laFields[lnField, 9]
>>

>
>I thought you can get/set it with CursorGetProp

That function is for CURSOR not for the field :-)