alter_table man page on SuSE

Man page or keyword search:  
man Server   14857 pages
apropos Keyword Search (all sections)
Output format
SuSE logo
[printable version]

ALTER TABLE()			 SQL Commands			 ALTER TABLE()

NAME
       ALTER TABLE - change the definition of a table

SYNOPSIS
       ALTER TABLE [ ONLY ] name [ * ]
	   action [, ... ]
       ALTER TABLE [ ONLY ] name [ * ]
	   RENAME [ COLUMN ] column TO new_column
       ALTER TABLE name
	   RENAME TO new_name
       ALTER TABLE name
	   SET SCHEMA new_schema

       where action is one of:

	   ADD [ COLUMN ] column type [ column_constraint [ ... ] ]
	   DROP [ COLUMN ] column [ RESTRICT | CASCADE ]
	   ALTER [ COLUMN ] column TYPE type [ USING expression ]
	   ALTER [ COLUMN ] column SET DEFAULT expression
	   ALTER [ COLUMN ] column DROP DEFAULT
	   ALTER [ COLUMN ] column { SET | DROP } NOT NULL
	   ALTER [ COLUMN ] column SET STATISTICS integer
	   ALTER [ COLUMN ] column SET STORAGE { PLAIN | EXTERNAL | EXTENDED | MAIN }
	   ADD table_constraint
	   DROP CONSTRAINT constraint_name [ RESTRICT | CASCADE ]
	   DISABLE TRIGGER [ trigger_name | ALL | USER ]
	   ENABLE TRIGGER [ trigger_name | ALL | USER ]
	   ENABLE REPLICA TRIGGER trigger_name
	   ENABLE ALWAYS TRIGGER trigger_name
	   DISABLE RULE rewrite_rule_name
	   ENABLE RULE rewrite_rule_name
	   ENABLE REPLICA RULE rewrite_rule_name
	   ENABLE ALWAYS RULE rewrite_rule_name
	   CLUSTER ON index_name
	   SET WITHOUT CLUSTER
	   SET WITHOUT OIDS
	   SET ( storage_parameter = value [, ... ] )
	   RESET ( storage_parameter [, ... ] )
	   INHERIT parent_table
	   NO INHERIT parent_table
	   OWNER TO new_owner
	   SET TABLESPACE new_tablespace

DESCRIPTION
       ALTER  TABLE  changes  the  definition of an existing table.  There are
       several subforms:

       ADD COLUMN
	      This form adds a new column to the table, using the same	syntax
	      as CREATE TABLE [create_table(7)].

       DROP COLUMN
	      This  form  drops	 a column from a table. Indexes and table con‐
	      straints involving the column will be automatically  dropped  as
	      well. You will need to say CASCADE if anything outside the table
	      depends on the column, for example, foreign  key	references  or
	      views.

       ALTER COLUMN TYPE
	      This  form  changes the type of a column of a table. Indexes and
	      simple table constraints involving the column will be  automati‐
	      cally  converted	to  use	 the  new column type by reparsing the
	      originally supplied expression. The optional USING clause speci‐
	      fies  how to compute the new column value from the old; if omit‐
	      ted, the default conversion is the same as  an  assignment  cast
	      from  old	 data  type to new. A USING clause must be provided if
	      there is no implicit or assignment cast from old to new type.

       SET/DROP DEFAULT
	      These forms set or remove the default value for a	 column.   The
	      default values only apply to subsequent INSERT commands; they do
	      not cause rows already in the table  to  change.	 Defaults  can
	      also  be created for views, in which case they are inserted into
	      INSERT statements on the view before the view's ON  INSERT  rule
	      is applied.

       SET/DROP NOT NULL
	      These forms change whether a column is marked to allow null val‐
	      ues or to reject null values. You can only use SET NOT NULL when
	      the column contains no null values.

       SET STATISTICS
	      This  form  sets	the per-column statistics-gathering target for
	      subsequent ANALYZE [analyze(7)] operations.  The target  can  be
	      set  in  the  range  0  to  1000; alternatively, set it to -1 to
	      revert  to  using	  the	system	 default   statistics	target
	      (default_statistics_target).  For more information on the use of
	      statistics by the PostgreSQL query planner, refer to in the doc‐
	      umentation.

       SET STORAGE
	      This  form  sets	the  storage  mode for a column. This controls
	      whether this column is held inline or in a supplementary	table,
	      and  whether the data should be compressed or not. PLAIN must be
	      used for fixed-length values such	 as  integer  and  is  inline,
	      uncompressed. MAIN is for inline, compressible data. EXTERNAL is
	      for external, uncompressed data, and EXTENDED is	for  external,
	      compressed  data.	 EXTENDED  is  the default for most data types
	      that support non-PLAIN storage.  Use of EXTERNAL will make  sub‐
	      string  operations  on  text  and	 bytea	columns faster, at the
	      penalty of  increased  storage  space.  Note  that  SET  STORAGE
	      doesn't  itself  change  anything in the table, it just sets the
	      strategy to be pursued during future table updates.  See in  the
	      documentation for more information.

       ADD table_constraint
	      This form adds a new constraint to a table using the same syntax
	      as CREATE TABLE [create_table(7)].

       DROP CONSTRAINT
	      This form drops the specified constraint on a table.

       DISABLE/ENABLE [ REPLICA | ALWAYS ] TRIGGER
	      These forms configure the firing of trigger(s) belonging to  the
	      table.   A disabled trigger is still known to the system, but is
	      not executed when its triggering event occurs.  For  a  deferred
	      trigger, the enable status is checked when the event occurs, not
	      when the trigger function is actually executed. One can  disable
	      or enable a single trigger specified by name, or all triggers on
	      the table, or only user triggers (this option excludes  triggers
	      that  are	 used to implement foreign key constraints). Disabling
	      or enabling constraint triggers requires	superuser  privileges;
	      it  should be done with caution since of course the integrity of
	      the constraint cannot be guaranteed if the triggers are not exe‐
	      cuted.   The  trigger  firing  mechanism is also affected by the
	      configuration variable session_replication_role. Simply  enabled
	      triggers	will fire when the replication role is ``origin'' (the
	      default) or ``local''. Triggers configured ENABLE	 REPLICA  will
	      only  fire  if  the  session is in ``replica'' mode and triggers
	      configured ENABLE ALWAYS will fire  regardless  of  the  current
	      replication mode.

       DISABLE/ENABLE [ REPLICA | ALWAYS ] RULE
	      These  forms  configure the firing of rewrite rules belonging to
	      the table.  A disabled rule is still known to the system, but is
	      not  applied  during  query  rewriting. The semantics are as for
	      disabled/enabled triggers. This configuration is ignored for  ON
	      SELECT  rules,  which  are always applied in order to keep views
	      working even if the current session is in a non-default replica‐
	      tion role.

       CLUSTER
	      This  form  selects  the default index for future CLUSTER [clus‐
	      ter(7)] operations. It does not actually re-cluster the table.

       SET WITHOUT CLUSTER
	      This form removes the most recently  used	 CLUSTER  [cluster(7)]
	      index  specification from the table. This affects future cluster
	      operations that don't specify an index.

       SET WITHOUT OIDS
	      This form removes the oid system column from the table. This  is
	      exactly  equivalent  to DROP COLUMN oid RESTRICT, except that it
	      will not complain if there is already no oid column.

	      Note that there is no variant of ALTER TABLE that allows OIDs to
	      be restored to a table once they have been removed.

       SET ( storage_parameter = value [, ... ] )
	      This  form changes one or more storage parameters for the table.
	      See CREATE TABLE [create_table(7)] for details on the  available
	      parameters.  Note	 that  the table contents will not be modified
	      immediately by this command;  depending  on  the	parameter  you
	      might  need  to  rewrite	the  table to get the desired effects.
	      That can be done with CLUSTER [cluster(7)] or one of  the	 forms
	      of ALTER TABLE that forces a table rewrite.

	      Note: While CREATE TABLE allows OIDS to be specified in the WITH
	      (storage_parameter) syntax, ALTER TABLE does not treat OIDS as a
	      storage parameter.

       RESET ( storage_parameter [, ... ] )
	      This  form  resets  one  or  more	 storage  parameters  to their
	      defaults. As with SET, a table rewrite might be needed to update
	      the table entirely.

       INHERIT parent_table
	      This  form adds the target table as a new child of the specified
	      parent table. Subsequently,  queries  against  the  parent  will
	      include records of the target table. To be added as a child, the
	      target table must already contain all the same  columns  as  the
	      parent (it could have additional columns, too). The columns must
	      have matching data types, and if they have NOT NULL  constraints
	      in  the  parent then they must also have NOT NULL constraints in
	      the child.

	      There must also be  matching  child-table	 constraints  for  all
	      CHECK  constraints of the parent. Currently UNIQUE, PRIMARY KEY,
	      and FOREIGN KEY constraints are not considered, but  this	 might
	      change in the future.

       NO INHERIT parent_table
	      This  form removes the target table from the list of children of
	      the specified parent table.  Queries against  the	 parent	 table
	      will no longer include records drawn from the target table.

       OWNER  This  form  changes the owner of the table, sequence, or view to
	      the specified user.

       SET TABLESPACE
	      This form	 changes  the  table's	tablespace  to	the  specified
	      tablespace  and moves the data file(s) associated with the table
	      to the new tablespace.  Indexes on the table, if	any,  are  not
	      moved;  but  they	 can  be  moved separately with additional SET
	      TABLESPACE  commands.   See   also   CREATE   TABLESPACE	 [cre‐
	      ate_tablespace(7)].

       RENAME The  RENAME  forms  change  the  name  of	 a table (or an index,
	      sequence, or view) or the name of an individual column in a  ta‐
	      ble. There is no effect on the stored data.

       SET SCHEMA
	      This  form  moves	 the  table  into  another  schema. Associated
	      indexes, constraints, and sequences owned by table  columns  are
	      moved as well.

       All  the	 actions  except  RENAME and SET SCHEMA can be combined into a
       list of multiple alterations to apply in parallel. For example,	it  is
       possible	 to  add several columns and/or alter the type of several col‐
       umns in a single	 command.  This	 is  particularly  useful  with	 large
       tables, since only one pass over the table need be made.

       You  must  own the table to use ALTER TABLE.  To change the schema of a
       table, you must also have CREATE privilege on the new schema.   To  add
       the table as a new child of a parent table, you must own the parent ta‐
       ble as well.  To alter the owner, you must also be a direct or indirect
       member of the new owning role, and that role must have CREATE privilege
       on the table's schema. (These restrictions enforce  that	 altering  the
       owner  doesn't  do  anything you couldn't do by dropping and recreating
       the table.  However, a superuser can alter ownership of any table  any‐
       way.)

PARAMETERS
       name   The  name	 (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table to
	      alter. If ONLY is specified before the table name, only that ta‐
	      ble  is altered. If ONLY is not specified, the table and all its
	      descendant tables (if any) are altered.  Optionally,  *  can  be
	      specified	 after	the  table  name  to  explicitly indicate that
	      descendant tables are included.

       column Name of a new or existing column.

       new_column
	      New name for an existing column.

       new_name
	      New name for the table.

       type   Data type of the new column, or new data type  for  an  existing
	      column.

       table_constraint
	      New table constraint for the table.

       constraint_name
	      Name of an existing constraint to drop.

       CASCADE
	      Automatically  drop objects that depend on the dropped column or
	      constraint (for example, views referencing the column).

       RESTRICT
	      Refuse to drop the column or constraint if there are any	depen‐
	      dent objects. This is the default behavior.

       trigger_name
	      Name of a single trigger to disable or enable.

       ALL    Disable  or  enable  all triggers belonging to the table.	 (This
	      requires superuser privilege if any of the triggers are for for‐
	      eign key constraints.)

       USER   Disable or enable all triggers belonging to the table except for
	      foreign key constraint triggers.

       index_name
	      The index name on which the table should be marked for  cluster‐
	      ing.

       storage_parameter
	      The name of a table storage parameter.

       value  The  new	value  for a table storage parameter.  This might be a
	      number or a word depending on the parameter.

       parent_table
	      A parent table to associate or de-associate with this table.

       new_owner
	      The user name of the new owner of the table.

       new_tablespace
	      The name of the tablespace to which the table will be moved.

       new_schema
	      The name of the schema to which the table will be moved.

NOTES
       The key word COLUMN is noise and can be omitted.

       When a column is added with ADD COLUMN, all existing rows in the	 table
       are  initialized	 with  the  column's default value (NULL if no DEFAULT
       clause is specified).

       Adding a column with a non-null default or  changing  the  type	of  an
       existing	 column	 will  require	the entire table to be rewritten. This
       might take a significant amount of time for a large table; and it  will
       temporarily require double the disk space.

       Adding  a  CHECK	 or NOT NULL constraint requires scanning the table to
       verify that existing rows meet the constraint.

       The main reason for providing the option to specify multiple changes in
       a  single  ALTER	 TABLE	is  that  multiple table scans or rewrites can
       thereby be combined into a single pass over the table.

       The DROP COLUMN form does not physically remove the column, but	simply
       makes  it  invisible  to	 SQL  operations. Subsequent insert and update
       operations in the table will store a null value for the	column.	 Thus,
       dropping	 a  column is quick but it will not immediately reduce the on-
       disk size of your table, as the space occupied by the dropped column is
       not  reclaimed.	The space will be reclaimed over time as existing rows
       are updated.

       The fact that ALTER TYPE requires rewriting the whole  table  is	 some‐
       times  an  advantage, because the rewriting process eliminates any dead
       space in the table. For example, to reclaim the	space  occupied	 by  a
       dropped column immediately, the fastest way is:

       ALTER TABLE table ALTER COLUMN anycol TYPE anytype;

       where anycol is any remaining table column and anytype is the same type
       that column already  has.   This	 results  in  no  semantically-visible
       change  in  the table, but the command forces rewriting, which gets rid
       of no-longer-useful data.

       The USING option of ALTER TYPE  can  actually  specify  any  expression
       involving  the  old  values  of the row; that is, it can refer to other
       columns as well as the one being converted. This	 allows	 very  general
       conversions  to	be  done  with	the ALTER TYPE syntax. Because of this
       flexibility, the USING  expression  is  not  applied  to	 the  column's
       default	value  (if any); the result might not be a constant expression
       as required for a default.  This means that when there is  no  implicit
       or  assignment cast from old to new type, ALTER TYPE might fail to con‐
       vert the default even though a USING clause is supplied. In such cases,
       drop  the  default  with DROP DEFAULT, perform the ALTER TYPE, and then
       use SET DEFAULT to add a suitable new default.  Similar	considerations
       apply to indexes and constraints involving the column.

       If  a  table  has  any  descendant  tables, it is not permitted to add,
       rename, or change the type of a column  in  the	parent	table  without
       doing  the  same	 to the descendants. That is, ALTER TABLE ONLY will be
       rejected. This ensures that the descendants always have columns	match‐
       ing the parent.

       A recursive DROP COLUMN operation will remove a descendant table's col‐
       umn only if the descendant does not inherit that column from any	 other
       parents and never had an independent definition of the column. A nonre‐
       cursive DROP COLUMN (i.e., ALTER TABLE  ONLY  ...  DROP	COLUMN)	 never
       removes any descendant columns, but instead marks them as independently
       defined rather than inherited.

       The TRIGGER, CLUSTER, OWNER, and TABLESPACE actions  never  recurse  to
       descendant  tables; that is, they always act as though ONLY were speci‐
       fied.  Adding a constraint can recurse only for CHECK constraints.

       Changing any part of a system catalog table is not permitted.

       Refer to CREATE TABLE [create_table(7)] for a  further  description  of
       valid  parameters.  in  the  documentation  has	further information on
       inheritance.

EXAMPLES
       To add a column of type varchar to a table:

       ALTER TABLE distributors ADD COLUMN address varchar(30);

       To drop a column from a table:

       ALTER TABLE distributors DROP COLUMN address RESTRICT;

       To change the types of two existing columns in one operation:

       ALTER TABLE distributors
	   ALTER COLUMN address TYPE varchar(80),
	   ALTER COLUMN name TYPE varchar(100);

       To change an integer column containing  UNIX  timestamps	 to  timestamp
       with time zone via a USING clause:

       ALTER TABLE foo
	   ALTER COLUMN foo_timestamp TYPE timestamp with time zone
	   USING
	       timestamp with time zone 'epoch' + foo_timestamp * interval '1 second';

       The same, when the column has a default expression that won't automati‐
       cally cast to the new data type:

       ALTER TABLE foo
	   ALTER COLUMN foo_timestamp DROP DEFAULT,
	   ALTER COLUMN foo_timestamp TYPE timestamp with time zone
	   USING
	       timestamp with time zone 'epoch' + foo_timestamp * interval '1 second',
	   ALTER COLUMN foo_timestamp SET DEFAULT now();

       To rename an existing column:

       ALTER TABLE distributors RENAME COLUMN address TO city;

       To rename an existing table:

       ALTER TABLE distributors RENAME TO suppliers;

       To add a not-null constraint to a column:

       ALTER TABLE distributors ALTER COLUMN street SET NOT NULL;

       To remove a not-null constraint from a column:

       ALTER TABLE distributors ALTER COLUMN street DROP NOT NULL;

       To add a check constraint to a table:

       ALTER TABLE distributors ADD CONSTRAINT zipchk CHECK (char_length(zipcode) = 5);

       To remove a check constraint from a table and all its children:

       ALTER TABLE distributors DROP CONSTRAINT zipchk;

       To add a foreign key constraint to a table:

       ALTER TABLE distributors ADD CONSTRAINT distfk FOREIGN KEY (address) REFERENCES addresses (address) MATCH FULL;

       To add a (multicolumn) unique constraint to a table:

       ALTER TABLE distributors ADD CONSTRAINT dist_id_zipcode_key UNIQUE (dist_id, zipcode);

       To add an automatically named primary key constraint to a table, noting
       that a table can only ever have one primary key:

       ALTER TABLE distributors ADD PRIMARY KEY (dist_id);

       To move a table to a different tablespace:

       ALTER TABLE distributors SET TABLESPACE fasttablespace;

       To move a table to a different schema:

       ALTER TABLE myschema.distributors SET SCHEMA yourschema;

COMPATIBILITY
       The ADD, DROP, and SET DEFAULT forms conform with the SQL standard. The
       other forms are PostgreSQL extensions of the SQL standard.   Also,  the
       ability	to  specify more than one manipulation in a single ALTER TABLE
       command is an extension.

       ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN can be used to drop the only column of a table,
       leaving	a zero-column table. This is an extension of SQL, which disal‐
       lows zero-column tables.

SQL - Language Statements	  2013-02-04			 ALTER TABLE()
[top]

List of man pages available for SuSE

Copyright (c) for man pages and the logo by the respective OS vendor.

For those who want to learn more, the polarhome community provides shell access and support.

[legal] [privacy] [GNU] [policy] [cookies] [netiquette] [sponsors] [FAQ]
Tweet
Polarhome, production since 1999.
Member of Polarhome portal.
Based on Fawad Halim's script.
....................................................................
Vote for polarhome
Free Shell Accounts :: the biggest list on the net