>>alter table TBL add TBLJUNK3 char(20) not null default ''
>>
>>That works fine. Now I want to remove it. I try:
>>  alter table TBL drop column TBLJUNK3
>>and it tells me
>>  The object 'DF__TBL__TBLJUNK3__084B3915' is dependent on column 'TBLJUNK3'.
>>
>>I'm assuming that this funny thing is the default it created for this column for me. So I figure I should first try to clear the default before I drop the column, but I can't seem to drop or clear the default.
>>
>>I tried:
>>  EXEC sp_unbindefault 'tbl.tbljunk3'
>>and it tells me to use ALTER TABLE DROP CONSTRAINT. But I can't get that to work.
>>
>>I also tried
>>  alter table TBL alter column TBLJUNK3 drop default
>>and of course
>>  alter table TBL alter column TBLJUNK3 drop constraint
>>but all come back with syntax errors.
>>
>>All I want to do is to delete a stupid column! What is the secret, and how come it's so hard? (Don't feel obliged to answer the last part of that.)
>>
>>Thanks for your help. Tom
>
>You can drop the constraint first and then the column:
>

ALTER TABLE tbl DROP CONSTRAINT funny_constraint_name
>ALTER TABLE tbl DROP COLUMN tbljunk3

>You already know the name of the constraint, but you can get at that with
>

sp_helpconstraint 'table_name'

>HTH

Thanks. Worked like a charm!