SQL table too large, can't change design

Question

In SQL Azure, how do I change a field: decimal(18,9) to decimal (18,5) if I have millions of records?

I am getting overflow exception because of the data type and I cannot fix it because "alter table" times out. Please suggest what to do.

Answer 1

If you can't do an alter table, perhaps create a new table with the new precision and copy the data from old table to new. Possibly the SQL Azure Migration Wizard or SQL Server BCP tools would be useful in doing this with a large data set.

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David Pallmann GM Application Development, Neudesic Windows Azure MVP