Changing the maximum length of a varchar column?

Question

I\'m trying to update the length of a varchar column from 255 characters to 500 without losing the contents. I\'ve dropped and re-created tables before but I\'ve never been expo

Answer 1

Increasing column size with ALTER will not lose any data:

alter table [progennet_dev].PROGEN.LE 
    alter column UR_VALUE_3 varchar(500) 

As @Martin points out, remember to explicitly specify NULL | NOT NULL