Altering a column to be nullable

If this was MySQL syntax, the type would have been missing, as some other responses point out. Correct MySQL syntax would have been:

ALTER TABLE Merchant_Pending_Functions MODIFY NumberOfLocations INT NULL

Posting here for clarity to MySQL users.

for Oracle Database 10g users:

alter table mytable modify(mycolumn null);

You get "ORA-01735: invalid ALTER TABLE option" when you try otherwise

ALTER TABLE mytable ALTER COLUMN mycolumn DROP NOT NULL;

In PostgresQL it is:

ALTER TABLE tableName ALTER COLUMN columnName DROP NOT NULL;

Although I don't know what RDBMS you are using, you probably need to give the whole column specification, not just say that you now want it to be nullable. For example, if it's currently INT NOT NULL, you should issue ALTER TABLE Merchant_Pending_Functions Modify NumberOfLocations INT.

As others have observed, the precise syntax for the command varies across different flavours of DBMS. The syntax you use works in Oracle:

SQL> desc MACAddresses
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 COMPUTER                                           NUMBER
 MACADDRESS                                         VARCHAR2(12)
 CORRECTED_MACADDRESS                      NOT NULL VARCHAR2(17)

SQL> alter table MACAddresses
  2       modify corrected_MACAddress null
  3  /

Table altered.

SQL> desc MACAddresses
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
 COMPUTER                                           NUMBER
 MACADDRESS                                         VARCHAR2(12)
 CORRECTED_MACADDRESS                               VARCHAR2(17)

SQL>