I posted this yesterday and got no response, so I will try again. Alter table add column does not set the default value for new rows added to a table. I can except that it does not copy the new default value for existing rows. That is easy to work around. My problem is that the database does not reflect the default value for new rows added after the alter statement. I could work around this is someone could tell me how to modify the system tables to specify a default value. This does not seem to be much documentation for the layout of the system tables. Bryan White ArcaMax Inc. Yorktown VA www.arcamax.com