SQL Reference

Chapter 2 | Supported standards 21
1 To define a column as a container field, use BLOB, VARBINARY, or BINARY VARYING for
the field_type.
1 To define a column as a container field that stores data externally, use the EXTERNAL
keyword. The relative_path_string defines the folder where the data is stored
externally, relative to the location of the FileMaker database. This path must be specified as
the base directory in the FileMaker
Pro Manage Containers dialog box. You must specify
either SECURE for secure storage or OPEN for open storage. If you are using open storage,
the calc_path_string is the folder inside the relative_path_string folder where
container objects are to be stored. The path must use forward slashes (/) in the folder name.
Examples
ALTER TABLE statement
Use the ALTER TABLE statement to change the structure of an existing table in a database file.
You can modify only one column in each statement. The formats of the ALTER TABLE statement
are:
ALTER TABLE table_name ADD [COLUMN] column_definition
ALTER TABLE table_name DROP [COLUMN] unqualified_column_name
ALTER TABLE table_name ALTER [COLUMN] column_definition SET DEFAULT
expr
ALTER TABLE table_name ALTER [COLUMN] column_definition DROP DEFAULT
You must know the table’s structure and how you want to modify it before using the ALTER TABLE
statement.
Using Sample SQL
text column CREATE TABLE T1 (C1 VARCHAR, C2 VARCHAR (50), C3 VARCHAR (1001),
C4 VARCHAR (500276))
text column, NOT NULL CREATE TABLE T1NN (C1 VARCHAR NOT NULL, C2 VARCHAR (50) NOT NULL,
C3 VARCHAR (1001) NOT NULL, C4 VARCHAR (500276) NOT NULL)
numeric column CREATE TABLE T2 (C1 DECIMAL, C2 DECIMAL (10,0), C3 DECIMAL (7539,2),
C4
DECIMAL (497925,301))
date column CREATE TABLE T3 (C1 DATE, C2 DATE, C3 DATE, C4 DATE)
time column CREATE TABLE T4 (C1 TIME, C2 TIME, C3 TIME, C4 TIME)
timestamp column CREATE TABLE T5 (C1 TIMESTAMP, C2 TIMESTAMP, C3 TIMESTAMP,
C4 TIMESTAMP)
column for container field CREATE TABLE T6 (C1 BLOB, C2 BLOB, C3 BLOB, C4 BLOB)
column for external
storage container field
CREATE TABLE T7 (C1 BLOB EXTERNAL 'Files/MyDatabase/' SECURE)
CREATE TABLE T8 (C1 BLOB EXTERNAL 'Files/MyDatabase/'
OPEN
'Objects')