What is the process during re-naming and re-creating a MS-SQL table using stored procedure? - sql

Question

I have a table called myTable where continuous insertion is happening. I will rename that table by myTable_Date and create a new table, myTable through a Store Procedure.
I want to know what will happen during re-naming and re-creating the table, will it drop any packet?

Answer 1

SQL Server has sp_rename built in if you just want to change the name of a table.
sp_rename myTable, myTable_Date
Would change the name from myTable to myTable_Date
But it only changes the name reference in sys.Objects so make sure any references are altered and read the documentation about it :)
The Microsoft doc for it is HERE

Answer 2

When you rename the myTable to myTableDate, myTable won't exist anymore so if someone tries to insert something inside myTable it will fail.
When you create new myTable with the same name and columns everything will be fine and the insertion process will continue.
I suggest you to make a little script renaming the table and creating new one. Something like this:
sp_rename myTable, myTable_Date
GO
CREATE TABLE myTable(
-- Table definition
)
When you rename the table you will get warning like this: "Caution: Changing any part of an object name could break scripts and stored procedures." so you better create the new table fast.
Other option is you create a table exact like myTable and insert all data from myTable there and then can delete them from myTable. No renaming, no dropping and insertion process will not be interrupted.

Answer 3

I want to know what will happen during re-naming and re-creating the
table, will it drop any packet?
Inserts attempted after the table is renamed will err until the table is recreated. You can avoid that by executing the tasks in a transaction. Short term blocking will happen if an insert is attempted before the transaction is committed but no rows will be lost. For example:
CREATE PROC dbo.ReanmeMytableWithDate
AS
DECLARE #NewName sysname = 'mytable_' + CONVERT(nchar(8), SYSDATETIME(), 112);
SET XACT_ABORT ON;
BEGIN TRY;
BEGIN TRAN;
EXEC sp_rename N'dbo.mytable', #NewName;
CREATE TABLE dbo.mytable(
col1 int
);
COMMIT;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
THROW;
END CATCH;
GO
I don't know your use case for renaming tables like this but it seems table partitioning might be a better approach as #Damien_The_Unbeliever suggested. Although table partitioning previously required Enterprise Edition, the feature is available in Standard Edition beginning with SQL Server 2016 SP1 as well as Azure SQL Database.