Question: I have created a foreign key (in SQL Server) by:

```
alter table company add CountryID varchar(3);
alter table company add constraint Company_CountryID_FK foreign key(CountryID) 
references Country;

```

I then run this query:

```
alter table company drop column CountryID;

```

and I get this error:

> 
> *Msg 5074, Level 16, State 4, Line 2  
> 
>  The object 'Company\_CountryID\_FK' is dependent on column 'CountryID'.  
> 
>  Msg 4922, Level 16, State 9, Line 2  
> 
>  ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN CountryID failed because one or more objects access this column*
> 
> 
> 

I have tried this, yet it does not seem to work:

```
alter table company drop foreign key Company_CountryID_FK; 
alter table company drop column CountryID;

```

What do I need to do to drop the `CountryID` column?

Thanks.

Answer: 
First check of existence of the constraint then drop it. 

```
if exists (select 1 from sys.objects where name = 'Company_CountryID_FK' and type='F')
begin
alter table company drop constraint  Company_CountryID_FK
end

```
You can also Right Click on the table, choose modify, then go to the attribute, right click on it, and choose drop primary key.