How to drop SQL default constraint without knowing its name?

Question

Expanding on Mitch Wheat's code, the following script will generate the command to drop the constraint and dynamically execute it.

declare @schema_name nvarchar(256)
declare @table_name nvarchar(256)
declare @col_name nvarchar(256)
declare @Command  nvarchar(1000)

set @schema_name = N'MySchema'
set @table_name = N'Department'
set @col_name = N'ModifiedDate'

select @Command = 'ALTER TABLE ' + @schema_name + '.[' + @table_name + '] DROP CONSTRAINT ' + d.name
 from sys.tables t
  join sys.default_constraints d on d.parent_object_id = t.object_id
  join sys.columns c on c.object_id = t.object_id and c.column_id = d.parent_column_id
 where t.name = @table_name
  and t.schema_id = schema_id(@schema_name)
  and c.name = @col_name

--print @Command

execute (@Command)

Rob Farley's blog post might be of help:

• Two ways to find / drop a default constraint without knowing its name

Something like:

 declare @table_name nvarchar(256)
 declare @col_name nvarchar(256)
 set @table_name = N'Department'
 set @col_name = N'ModifiedDate'

 select t.name, c.name, d.name, d.definition
 from 
     sys.tables t
     join sys.default_constraints d on d.parent_object_id = t.object_id
     join sys.columns c on c.object_id = t.object_id
                           and c.column_id = d.parent_column_id
 where 
     t.name = @table_name
     and c.name = @col_name

I found that this works and uses no joins:

DECLARE @ObjectName NVARCHAR(100)
SELECT @ObjectName = OBJECT_NAME([default_object_id]) FROM SYS.COLUMNS
WHERE [object_id] = OBJECT_ID('[tableSchema].[tableName]') AND [name] = 'columnName';
EXEC('ALTER TABLE [tableSchema].[tableName] DROP CONSTRAINT ' + @ObjectName)

Just make sure that columnName does not have brackets around it because the query is looking for an exact match and will return nothing if it is [columnName].

To drop constraint for multiple columns:

declare @table_name nvarchar(256)

declare @Command nvarchar(max) = ''

set @table_name = N'ATableName'

select @Command = @Command + 'ALTER TABLE ' + @table_name + ' drop constraint ' + d.name + CHAR(10)+ CHAR(13)
from sys.tables t
join sys.default_constraints d on d.parent_object_id = t.object_id
join sys.columns c on c.object_id = t.object_id
     and c.column_id = d.parent_column_id
where t.name = @table_name and c.name in ('column1','column2','column3')

--print @Command

execute (@Command)

Expanded solution (takes table schema into account):

-- Drop default contstraint for SchemaName.TableName.ColumnName
DECLARE @schema_name NVARCHAR(256)
DECLARE @table_name NVARCHAR(256)
DECLARE @col_name NVARCHAR(256)
DECLARE @Command  NVARCHAR(1000)

set @schema_name = N'SchemaName'
set @table_name = N'TableName'
set @col_name = N'ColumnName'

SELECT @Command = 'ALTER TABLE [' + @schema_name + '].[' + @table_name + '] DROP CONSTRAINT ' + d.name
 FROM sys.tables t   
  JOIN sys.default_constraints d       
   ON d.parent_object_id = t.object_id  
  JOIN sys.schemas s
        ON s.schema_id = t.schema_id
  JOIN    sys.columns c      
   ON c.object_id = t.object_id      
    AND c.column_id = d.parent_column_id
 WHERE t.name = @table_name
    AND s.name = @schema_name 
  AND c.name = @col_name

EXECUTE (@Command)

Run this command to browse all constraints:

exec sp_helpconstraint 'mytable' --and look under constraint_name. 

It will look something like this: DF__Mytable__Column__[ABC123]. Then you can just drop the constraint.