min alpha in password specifies the minimum number of alphabetic characters allowed in a password. This value must be at least the sum of minimum number of uppercase characters and minimum number of lowercase characters.
Valid values are:
0 through 16 – the number of alphabetic characters required to be in the password.
-1 – the password cannot contain alphabetic characters.
By default, this password complexity option is turned off and this check is not applied to passwords.
To set the minimum number of alphabetic characters in a password, enter:
sp_passwordpolicy 'set', 'min alpha in password', number
For example, if you have set min alpha in password to
4, you must have at least 4 alphabetic characters in your password.
To satisfy this requirement, you can set the password for new login johnd to SECret123456,
by entering:
sp_addlogin 'johnd', SECret123456
However, if you attempt to create the new login:
sp_addlogin 'johnd', 'sec123456'
and the minimum number of alphabetic characters is still 4, the command fails.
