SQL Server 2016 SP1: T-SQL Enhancement – CREATE OR ALTER

In the Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2016 (Download here), a new T-SQL enhancement has been added:
CREATE OR ALTER

This command can be used with stored procedures, functions, triggers and views. So it doesn’t matter if an object already exists or not, we can issue the same command for either case. No more checking for the existence of an object or dropping and recreating an object.
For example:

create or alter procedure dbo.GetPosition
	@PositionCode char(2)
as

select PositionCode, PositionDescription 
from dbo.Position
where PositionCode = @PositionCode;

This will definitely simplify any deployment process. I’ve never liked dropping and re-creating an object, since you lose any permissions that have been granted to for an object.

MSDN Article: CREATE OR ALTER