Add identity column to 90 million row table

[Brad Allen]

I need to add an identity column to a table with 90 million rows. I actually want to replace a column. I need to add the column, update the identity value, and remove the old column.

Is there a way to do this without copying all of the data. I would like to do an alter table to convert the int column to an identity column. Moving the data in the tables will take all day.

[Jeff Putnam]

This is going to take all day no matter how you look at it.. adding an identity column is going to force a data reorg. You don't really need to copy the data though - you should just be able to add the ident column in EM or TSQL.


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Brad Allen at 6/21/01 5:42:47 PM

I need to add an identity column to a table with 90 million rows. I actually want to replace a column. I need to add the column, update the identity value, and remove the old column.

Is there a way to do this without copying all of the data. I would like to do an alter table to convert the int column to an identity column. Moving the data in the tables will take all day.