I agree. My naming convention of the default constraints is similar to yours. It is DF_TABLENAME_FIELDNAME.
Thank you.

>As a side note, you should use a naming convention for naming the constraints, because sometimes you will need to modify or drop the constraints. In those cases it will be easier if you then know the names of these, rather than trying to figure them out or searching them with separate queries.
>
>In my case, I would then just calll it df_'fieldname' for instance.
>
>>I did try to put NOT NULL at the end. It made no difference.
>>
>>Antonio is right about the default constraint.
>>
>>>BTW, I think the error in the syntax is that NOT NULL part should be the last. I didn't try now, but I'm 99% certain I'm right.
>>>
>>>>>>What Antonio suggested works. Except when I use the default.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Example:
>>>>>>

>>>>>>ALTER TABLE MyTable ALTER COLUMN notes varchar(max) not null default '' 
>>>>>>

>>>>>>
>>>>>>I am getting error "near key word Default"
>>>>>>
>>>>>>What am I missing?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>TIA
>>>>>
>>>>>Dmitry, I think this is how MSSQL adds a default value to an existing column:
>>>>>
>>>>>

>>>>>ALTER TABLE MyTable ADD CONSTRAINT DF_NotesAreEmpty DEFAULT '' FOR notes;
>>>>>

>>>>
>>>>Antonio,
>>>>I am sure your code works. But what I found is that if I change the type from Text to Varchar(max) and simply add NOT NULL, the default of the Text type stays. So, in the end I don't need to set the default.
>>>>Thank you.
>>>>
>>>>UPDATE. I believe you are right. I have to "deal" with the constraint. Because when I ALTER the column, the SQL complaints that the field NOTES depends on the constraint. So, I will have to drop the constraint first.
>>>>It is never very simple :)