How do I add more than one column to a table using SQL?

Question

Hi
I need to add 3 columns to a table using SQL
the syntax
"ALTER TABLE TEST ADD COLUMN newcol1 float";
works fine - for adding one coumn only.
For multiple columns I tried various permutations along the lines of
"ALTER TABLE TEST ADD (COLUMN newcol01 float, COLUMN new2 float,COLUMN new3 float)";
"ALTER TABLE TIPSTEST ADD COLUMN new1 float"
"ALTER TABLE TIPSTEST ADD COLUMN new2 float"
"ALTER TABLE TIPSTEST ADD COLUMN new3 float"
etc., but this doesn't work.
From a web search it sounds like SQL can only add one column at a time.
I have a workaround : create intermediate temporary tables , copying data and adding
one column at each stage. It seems a fairly awkward way of programming though.
Am I missing something simple : is there a way to add multiple columns in one go?
Thanks

Answer 1

OK : solved an underlying problem with this one myself
for the code
String createString;
createString =  "select COFFEES.* INTO NEWCOFFEES FROM COFFEES"; // example
          Statement stmt;
          try {
               stmt = a_Globals.database1Connection.createStatement();
                      stmt.executeUpdate(createString);
               stmt.close();
               a_Globals.database1Connection.close();
          } catch(SQLException ex) {
               System.err.println("SQLException: " + ex.getMessage());
          }                    commenting out the line:
a_Globals.database1Connection.close();
Allowed the subsequent SQL statement(s) to work OK. Looks like this was the cause of several
difficulties, preventing me doing several SQL instructions in turn.
Thanks for the responses.
Mike2z