How to Drop a Column in SQL Server
Last updated July 25, 2026 · By the SaturnSQL team
Use ALTER TABLE ... DROP COLUMN. It fails if any constraint or index depends on the column, most often a DEFAULT constraint, which you must drop by name first.
ALTER TABLE orders DROP COLUMN internal_notes;Drop the default constraint first
A column with a DEFAULT fails with 'The object DF_... is dependent on column ...'. Find the constraint name, drop it, then drop the column.
SELECT dc.name
FROM sys.default_constraints dc
JOIN sys.columns c
ON c.object_id = dc.parent_object_id
AND c.column_id = dc.parent_column_id
WHERE dc.parent_object_id = OBJECT_ID('orders')
AND c.name = 'discount';
ALTER TABLE orders DROP CONSTRAINT DF_orders_discount;
ALTER TABLE orders DROP COLUMN discount;Run this in SaturnSQL
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