adding a new column in FirebirdSQL .

sorry , i know this is quite a dumb question but the command :

ALTER TABLE tablename ADD COLUMN colname INTEGER;

fails . From what I know this is the standard SQL syntax , so how does this need to look in firebird ?

Try:

ALTER TABLE tablename ADD colname INTEGER;

Another fine example that there is no such thing as a SQL standard:

Oracle: ALTER TABLE tablename ADD (colname coltype);
Postgres: ALTER TABLE tablename ADD colname coltype OR ALTER TABLE tablename ADD COLUMN colname coltype;

....