>Why don't you use DEFAULT constraint and avoid UPDATE that in this case requires table lock?
>

>SET @ExecuteSql = N'ALTER TABLE [Client] ADD [test4] char(40) DEFAULT ('''')'
>

>
>Also, wouldn't varchar(40) better choice for the column?

I wasn't aware of the Default clause. Thanks for mentioning it.

I have been used to Char(). Is VarChar() a new standard? Basically, if I define a character field, is this a better type to use?