Changing Column Length

I have a table which gets it feed from external source. I need to chnge the
length of the column on DBs which are in Prod. The table has couple of
indexes and FK relationship (NOT on the column that I need to change).
Number of records is around 36 million. I have never done something like
this before. Will there be any issues that I need to be aware off?If you are increasing the length of a varchar column using ALTER
TABLE...ALTER COLUMN, only meta-data changes are needed so the operation
should be very fast. This acquires a Sch-M lock though, so no other users
can use the table during the ALTER.
Hope this helps.
Dan Guzman
SQL Server MVP
"XXX" <sa@.nomail.com> wrote in message
news:uePmOBn2FHA.1188@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>I have a table which gets it feed from external source. I need to chnge the
>length of the column on DBs which are in Prod. The table has couple of
>indexes and FK relationship (NOT on the column that I need to change).
>Number of records is around 36 million. I have never done something like
>this before. Will there be any issues that I need to be aware off?
>