Sergio,

OK, your syntax looks fine ... the only other thing I can think of is that your compatibility level is set for version 6.5 (and that syntax won't work for versions before 7.0) ... so, in BOL, check out the topic on sp_dbcmptlevel ... you'll need to set it to a higher version (version 6.5 is not the default compatibility, so if that's what your problem is, someone must have set it).

~~Bonnie


>Bonnie thanks for your help.
>
>I am runing the code within SQL Query Analyzer.
>
>Here is the code :
>
>CREATE TABLE doc_exa ( column_a INT)
>GO
>ALTER TABLE doc_exa ADD column_b VARCHAR(20) NULL
>GO
>
>
>
>
>
>But when I issue the following :
>
>ALTER TABLE doc_exa ALTER COLUMN column_b VARCHAR(50) NULL
>
>I get the following error:
>
>Server: Msg 170, Level 15, State 1, Line 1
>Line 1: Incorrect syntax near 'COLUMN'.
>
>
>
>Sergio