ALTER ROLE (Transact-SQL)

Article
06/10/2022
3 minutes to read

Applies to: SQL Server (all supported versions) Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance Azure Synapse Analytics Analytics Platform System (PDW)

Adds or removes members to or from a database role, or changes the name of a user-defined database role.

Note

To alter roles adding or dropping members in Azure Synapse Analytics or Analytics Platform System (PDW), use sp_addrolemember (Transact-SQL) and sp_droprolemember (Transact-SQL).

Topic link icon Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

-- Syntax for SQL Server (starting with 2012) and Azure SQL Database  
  
ALTER ROLE  role_name  
{  
       ADD MEMBER database_principal  
    |  DROP MEMBER database_principal  
    |  WITH NAME = new_name  
}  
[;]

-- Syntax for SQL Server 2008, Azure Synapse Analytics and Parallel Data Warehouse
  
-- Change the name of a user-defined database role  
ALTER ROLE role_name   
    WITH NAME = new_name  
[;]

Note

To view Transact-SQL syntax for SQL Server 2014 and earlier, see Previous versions documentation.

Arguments

role_name
APPLIES TO: SQL Server (starting with 2008), Azure SQL Database

Specifies the database role to change.

ADD MEMBER database_principal
APPLIES TO: SQL Server (starting with 2012), Azure SQL Database

Specifies to add the database principal to the membership of a database role.

database_principal is a database user or a user-defined database role.
database_principal cannot be a fixed database role or a server principal.

DROP MEMBER database_principal
APPLIES TO: SQL Server (starting with 2012), Azure SQL Database

Specifies to remove a database principal from the membership of a database role.

database_principal is a database user or a user-defined database role.
database_principal cannot be a fixed database role or a server principal.

WITH NAME = new_name
APPLIES TO: SQL Server (starting with 2008), Azure SQL Database

Specifies to change the name of a user-defined database role. The new name must not already exist in the database.

Changing the name of a database role does not change ID number, owner, or permissions of the role.

Permissions

To run this command you need one or more of these permissions or memberships:

ALTER permission on the role
ALTER ANY ROLE permission on the database
Membership in the db_securityadmin fixed database role

Additionally, to change the membership in a fixed database role you need:

Membership in the db_owner fixed database role

Limitations and restrictions

You cannot change the name of a fixed database role.

Metadata

These system views contain information about database roles and database principals.

Examples

A. Change the name of a database role

APPLIES TO: SQL Server (starting with 2008), SQL Database

The following example changes the name of role buyers to purchasing. This example can be executed in the AdventureWorks sample database.

ALTER ROLE buyers WITH NAME = purchasing;

B. Add or remove role members

APPLIES TO: SQL Server (starting with 2012), SQL Database

This example creates a database role named Sales. It adds a database user named Barry to the membership, and then shows how to remove the member Barry. This example can be executed in the AdventureWorks sample database.

CREATE ROLE Sales;  
ALTER ROLE Sales ADD MEMBER Barry;  
ALTER ROLE Sales DROP MEMBER Barry;

C. Add a role member to special roles for Azure SQL Database and Azure Synapse Analytics

APPLIES TO: SQL Server (Azure SQL Database and Azure Synapse), SQL Database

This example creates a SQL login in the master database, creates a database user that's related to that server login, and adds the database user as a member of the special role dbmanager. The example allows the user permissions to create and drop databases on an Azure SQL Database logical server. Run the example on the master database of the Azure SQL Database logical server.

 CREATE LOGIN sqllogin_nlastname WITH password='aah3%#om1os';
    
 CREATE USER sqllogin_nlastname FOR LOGIN sqllogin_nlastname 
 WITH DEFAULT_SCHEMA = master;
    
 ALTER ROLE [dbmanager] add member sqllogin_nlastname;