Removing [] around column in SQL Server 2005

Question

when I was renaming the column in SQL Server, I accidentally inserted the square brackets around the column. The actual statement that I used was:

SP_RENAME 'customer.[EMPLOYEENAMES]', '[EMPLOYEENAME]', 'COLUMN'

But when I try to retrieve the data it just says and I even tried with out square brackets, it gives the same error

Invalid column name '[EMPLOYEENAME]'.

How should I remove the square brackets.

Answer 1

This will restore order in your database:

EXEC SP_RENAME 'customer."[EmployeeName]"', 'EmployeeName','COLUMN'

You cannot use double brackets because it returns syntax error. Quotes circumvent this limitation.

Answer 2

As you've now got a column with square brackets in the name itself, you can access that column by:

SELECT [[EmployeeName]]] 
FROM Customer

Yes, all those extra square brackets are a bit unwieldy :)

So, I'd rename your column again to remove the brackets:

EXEC SP_RENAME 'customer.[[EmployeeName]]]', 'EmployeeName','COLUMN'

So you can then reference "normally":

SELECT EmployeeName
FROM Customer

Answer 3

None of the given alternatives worked for me, so I had to create a new column with the right name, do an update setting newName = [[badName]]], and then drop the wrongly named column.