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NAME
ALTER_TABLE - change the definition of a table
SYNOPSIS
ALTER TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] [ ONLY ] name [ * ]
action [, ... ]
ALTER TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] [ ONLY ] name [ * ]
RENAME [ COLUMN ] column_name TO new_column_name
ALTER TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] [ ONLY ] name [ * ]
RENAME CONSTRAINT constraint_name TO new_constraint_name
ALTER TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] name
RENAME TO new_name
ALTER TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] name
SET SCHEMA new_schema
ALTER TABLE ALL IN TABLESPACE name [ OWNED BY role_name [, ... ] ]
SET TABLESPACE new_tablespace [ NOWAIT ]
ALTER TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] name
ATTACH PARTITION partition_name FOR VALUES partition_bound_spec
ALTER TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] name
DETACH PARTITION partition_name
where action is one of:
ADD [ COLUMN ] [ IF NOT EXISTS ] column_name data_type [ COLLATE collation ] [ column_constraint [ ... ] ]
DROP [ COLUMN ] [ IF EXISTS ] column_name [ RESTRICT | CASCADE ]
ALTER [ COLUMN ] column_name [ SET DATA ] TYPE data_type [ COLLATE collation ] [ USING expression ]
ALTER [ COLUMN ] column_name SET DEFAULT expression
ALTER [ COLUMN ] column_name DROP DEFAULT
ALTER [ COLUMN ] column_name { SET | DROP } NOT NULL
ALTER [ COLUMN ] column_name ADD GENERATED { ALWAYS | BY DEFAULT } AS IDENTITY [ ( sequence_options ) ]
ALTER [ COLUMN ] column_name { SET GENERATED { ALWAYS | BY DEFAULT } | SET sequence_option | RESTART [ [ WITH ] restart ] } [...]
ALTER [ COLUMN ] column_name DROP IDENTITY [ IF EXISTS ]
ALTER [ COLUMN ] column_name SET STATISTICS integer
ALTER [ COLUMN ] column_name SET ( attribute_option = value [, ... ] )
ALTER [ COLUMN ] column_name RESET ( attribute_option [, ... ] )
ALTER [ COLUMN ] column_name SET STORAGE { PLAIN | EXTERNAL | EXTENDED | MAIN }
ADD table_constraint [ NOT VALID ]
ADD table_constraint_using_index
ALTER CONSTRAINT constraint_name [ DEFERRABLE | NOT DEFERRABLE ] [ INITIALLY DEFERRED | INITIALLY IMMEDIATE ]
VALIDATE CONSTRAINT constraint_name
DROP CONSTRAINT [ IF EXISTS ] 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
DISABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY
ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY
FORCE ROW LEVEL SECURITY
NO FORCE ROW LEVEL SECURITY
CLUSTER ON index_name
SET WITHOUT CLUSTER
SET WITH OIDS
SET WITHOUT OIDS
SET TABLESPACE new_tablespace
SET { LOGGED | UNLOGGED }
SET ( storage_parameter [= value] [, ... ] )
RESET ( storage_parameter [, ... ] )
INHERIT parent_table
NO INHERIT parent_table
OF type_name
NOT OF
OWNER TO { new_owner | CURRENT_USER | SESSION_USER }
REPLICA IDENTITY { DEFAULT | USING INDEX index_name | FULL | NOTHING }
and table_constraint_using_index is:
[ CONSTRAINT constraint_name ]
{ UNIQUE | PRIMARY KEY } USING INDEX index_name
[ DEFERRABLE | NOT DEFERRABLE ] [ INITIALLY DEFERRED | INITIALLY IMMEDIATE ]
DESCRIPTION
ALTER TABLE changes the definition of an existing table. There are several subforms described below. Note
that the lock level required may differ for each subform. An ACCESS EXCLUSIVE lock is acquired unless
explicitly noted. When multiple subcommands are given, the lock acquired will be the strictest one
required by any subcommand.
ADD COLUMN [ IF NOT EXISTS ]
This form adds a new column to the table, using the same syntax as CREATE TABLE (CREATE_TABLE(7)). If
IF NOT EXISTS is specified and a column already exists with this name, no error is thrown.
DROP COLUMN [ IF EXISTS ]
This form drops a column from a table. Indexes and table constraints involving the column will be
automatically dropped as well. Multivariate statistics referencing the dropped column will also be
removed if the removal of the column would cause the statistics to contain data for only a single
column. You will need to say CASCADE if anything outside the table depends on the column, for
example, foreign key references or views. If IF EXISTS is specified and the column does not exist, no
error is thrown. In this case a notice is issued instead.
SET DATA TYPE
This form changes the type of a column of a table. Indexes and simple table constraints involving the
column will be automatically converted to use the new column type by reparsing the originally
supplied expression. The optional COLLATE clause specifies a collation for the new column; if
omitted, the collation is the default for the new column type. The optional USING clause specifies
how to compute the new column value from the old; if omitted, 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. Default values only apply in subsequent
INSERT or UPDATE commands; they do not cause rows already in the table to change.
SET/DROP NOT NULL
These forms change whether a column is marked to allow null values or to reject null values. You can
only use SET NOT NULL when the column contains no null values.
If this table is a partition, one cannot perform DROP NOT NULL on a column if it is marked NOT NULL
in the parent table. To drop the NOT NULL constraint from all the partitions, perform DROP NOT NULL
on the parent table. Even if there is no NOT NULL constraint on the parent, such a constraint can
still be added to individual partitions, if desired; that is, the children can disallow nulls even if
the parent allows them, but not the other way around.
ADD GENERATED { ALWAYS | BY DEFAULT } AS IDENTITY
SET GENERATED { ALWAYS | BY DEFAULT }
DROP IDENTITY [ IF EXISTS ]
These forms change whether a column is an identity column or change the generation attribute of an
existing identity column. See CREATE TABLE (CREATE_TABLE(7)) for details.
If DROP IDENTITY IF EXISTS is specified and the column is not an identity column, no error is thrown.
In this case a notice is issued instead.
SET sequence_option
RESTART
These forms alter the sequence that underlies an existing identity column. sequence_option is an
option supported by ALTER SEQUENCE (ALTER_SEQUENCE(7)) such as INCREMENT BY.
SET STATISTICS
This form sets the per-column statistics-gathering target for subsequent ANALYZE(7) operations. The
target can be set in the range 0 to 10000; 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 Section 14.2.
SET STATISTICS acquires a SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE lock.
SET ( attribute_option = value [, ... ] )
RESET ( attribute_option [, ... ] )
This form sets or resets per-attribute options. Currently, the only defined per-attribute options are
n_distinct and n_distinct_inherited, which override the number-of-distinct-values estimates made by
subsequent ANALYZE(7) operations. n_distinct affects the statistics for the table itself, while
n_distinct_inherited affects the statistics gathered for the table plus its inheritance children.
When set to a positive value, ANALYZE will assume that the column contains exactly the specified
number of distinct nonnull values. When set to a negative value, which must be greater than or equal
to -1, ANALYZE will assume that the number of distinct nonnull values in the column is linear in the
size of the table; the exact count is to be computed by multiplying the estimated table size by the
absolute value of the given number. For example, a value of -1 implies that all values in the column
are distinct, while a value of -0.5 implies that each value appears twice on the average. This can be
useful when the size of the table changes over time, since the multiplication by the number of rows
in the table is not performed until query planning time. Specify a value of 0 to revert to estimating
the number of distinct values normally. For more information on the use of statistics by the
PostgreSQL query planner, refer to Section 14.2.
Changing per-attribute options acquires a SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE lock.
SET STORAGE
This form sets the storage mode for a column. This controls whether this column is held inline or in
a secondary TOAST 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
substring operations on very large text and bytea values run 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 Section 67.2 for more information.
ADD table_constraint [ NOT VALID ]
This form adds a new constraint to a table using the same constraint syntax as CREATE TABLE
(CREATE_TABLE(7)), plus the option NOT VALID, which is currently only allowed for foreign key and
CHECK constraints.
Normally, this form will cause a scan of the table to verify that all existing rows in the table
satisfy the new constraint. But if the NOT VALID option is used, this potentially-lengthy scan is
skipped. The constraint will still be enforced against subsequent inserts or updates (that is,
they'll fail unless there is a matching row in the referenced table, in the case of foreign keys, or
they'll fail unless the new row matches the specified check condition). But the database will not
assume that the constraint holds for all rows in the table, until it is validated by using the
VALIDATE CONSTRAINT option. See NOTES below for more information about using the NOT VALID option.
Although most forms of ADD table_constraint require an ACCESS EXCLUSIVE lock, ADD FOREIGN KEY
requires only a SHARE ROW EXCLUSIVE lock. Note that ADD FOREIGN KEY also acquires a SHARE ROW
EXCLUSIVE lock on the referenced table, in addition to the lock on the table on which the constraint
is declared.
ADD table_constraint_using_index
This form adds a new PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraint to a table based on an existing unique index.
All the columns of the index will be included in the constraint.
The index cannot have expression columns nor be a partial index. Also, it must be a b-tree index with
default sort ordering. These restrictions ensure that the index is equivalent to one that would be
built by a regular ADD PRIMARY KEY or ADD UNIQUE command.
If PRIMARY KEY is specified, and the index's columns are not already marked NOT NULL, then this
command will attempt to do ALTER COLUMN SET NOT NULL against each such column. That requires a full
table scan to verify the column(s) contain no nulls. In all other cases, this is a fast operation.
If a constraint name is provided then the index will be renamed to match the constraint name.
Otherwise the constraint will be named the same as the index.
After this command is executed, the index is “owned” by the constraint, in the same way as if the
index had been built by a regular ADD PRIMARY KEY or ADD UNIQUE command. In particular, dropping the
constraint will make the index disappear too.
Note
Adding a constraint using an existing index can be helpful in situations where a new constraint
needs to be added without blocking table updates for a long time. To do that, create the index
using CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY, and then install it as an official constraint using this syntax.
See the example below.
ALTER CONSTRAINT
This form alters the attributes of a constraint that was previously created. Currently only foreign
key constraints may be altered.
VALIDATE CONSTRAINT
This form validates a foreign key or check constraint that was previously created as NOT VALID, by
scanning the table to ensure there are no rows for which the constraint is not satisfied. Nothing
happens if the constraint is already marked valid. (See NOTES below for an explanation of the
usefulness of this command.)
This command acquires a SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE lock.
DROP CONSTRAINT [ IF EXISTS ]
This form drops the specified constraint on a table. If IF EXISTS is specified and the constraint
does not exist, no error is thrown. In this case a notice is issued instead.
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 internally generated constraint triggers such as those
that are used to implement foreign key constraints or deferrable uniqueness and exclusion
constraints). Disabling or enabling internally generated 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 executed. 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 as ENABLE REPLICA will
only fire if the session is in “replica” mode, and triggers configured as ENABLE ALWAYS will fire
regardless of the current replication mode.
This command acquires a SHARE ROW EXCLUSIVE lock.
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 replication
role.
DISABLE/ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY
These forms control the application of row security policies belonging to the table. If enabled and
no policies exist for the table, then a default-deny policy is applied. Note that policies can exist
for a table even if row level security is disabled - in this case, the policies will NOT be applied
and the policies will be ignored. See also CREATE POLICY (CREATE_POLICY(7)).
NO FORCE/FORCE ROW LEVEL SECURITY
These forms control the application of row security policies belonging to the table when the user is
the table owner. If enabled, row level security policies will be applied when the user is the table
owner. If disabled (the default) then row level security will not be applied when the user is the
table owner. See also CREATE POLICY (CREATE_POLICY(7)).
CLUSTER ON
This form selects the default index for future CLUSTER(7) operations. It does not actually re-cluster
the table.
Changing cluster options acquires a SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE lock.
SET WITHOUT CLUSTER
This form removes the most recently used CLUSTER(7) index specification from the table. This affects
future cluster operations that don't specify an index.
Changing cluster options acquires a SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE lock.
SET WITH OIDS
This form adds an oid system column to the table (see Section 5.4). It does nothing if the table
already has OIDs.
Note that this is not equivalent to ADD COLUMN oid oid; that would add a normal column that happened
to be named oid, not a system column.
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.
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. All tables in the current
database in a tablespace can be moved by using the ALL IN TABLESPACE form, which will lock all tables
to be moved first and then move each one. This form also supports OWNED BY, which will only move
tables owned by the roles specified. If the NOWAIT option is specified then the command will fail if
it is unable to acquire all of the locks required immediately. Note that system catalogs are not
moved by this command, use ALTER DATABASE or explicit ALTER TABLE invocations instead if desired. The
information_schema relations are not considered part of the system catalogs and will be moved. See
also CREATE TABLESPACE (CREATE_TABLESPACE(7)).
SET { LOGGED | UNLOGGED }
This form changes the table from unlogged to logged or vice-versa (see UNLOGGED). It cannot be
applied to a temporary table.
SET ( storage_parameter [= value] [, ... ] )
This form changes one or more storage parameters for the table. See Storage Parameters 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 VACUUM FULL, CLUSTER(7) or one of the forms of ALTER TABLE that forces a table
rewrite. For planner related parameters, changes will take effect from the next time the table is
locked so currently executing queries will not be affected.
SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE lock will be taken for fillfactor and autovacuum storage parameters, as well
as the planner parameter parallel_workers.
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. Instead use the SET WITH OIDS and SET WITHOUT
OIDS forms to change OID status.
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, except
those marked non-inheritable (that is, created with ALTER TABLE ... ADD CONSTRAINT ... NO INHERIT) in
the parent, which are ignored; all child-table constraints matched must not be marked
non-inheritable. 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.
OF type_name
This form links the table to a composite type as though CREATE TABLE OF had formed it. The table's
list of column names and types must precisely match that of the composite type; the presence of an
oid system column is permitted to differ. The table must not inherit from any other table. These
restrictions ensure that CREATE TABLE OF would permit an equivalent table definition.
NOT OF
This form dissociates a typed table from its type.
OWNER
This form changes the owner of the table, sequence, view, materialized view, or foreign table to the
specified user.
REPLICA IDENTITY
This form changes the information which is written to the write-ahead log to identify rows which are
updated or deleted. In most cases, the old value of each column is only logged if it differs from the
new value; however, if the old value is stored externally, it is always logged regardless of whether
it changed. This option has no effect except when logical replication is in use.
DEFAULT
Records the old values of the columns of the primary key, if any. This is the default for
non-system tables.
USING INDEX index_name
Records the old values of the columns covered by the named index, that must be unique, not
partial, not deferrable, and include only columns marked NOT NULL. If this index is dropped, the
behavior is the same as NOTHING.
FULL
Records the old values of all columns in the row.
NOTHING
Records no information about the old row. This is the default for system tables.
RENAME
The RENAME forms change the name of a table (or an index, sequence, view, materialized view, or
foreign table), the name of an individual column in a table, or the name of a constraint of the
table. 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.
ATTACH PARTITION partition_name FOR VALUES partition_bound_spec
This form attaches an existing table (which might itself be partitioned) as a partition of the target
table using the same syntax for partition_bound_spec as CREATE TABLE (CREATE_TABLE(7)). The partition
bound specification must correspond to the partitioning strategy and partition key of the target
table. The table to be attached must have all the same columns as the target table and no more;
moreover, the column types must also match. Also, it must have all the NOT NULL and CHECK constraints
of the target table. Currently UNIQUE, PRIMARY KEY, and FOREIGN KEY constraints are not considered.
If any of the CHECK constraints of the table being attached are marked NO INHERIT, the command will
fail; such constraints must be recreated without the NO INHERIT clause.
If the new partition is a regular table, a full table scan is performed to check that existing rows
in the table do not violate the partition constraint. It is possible to avoid this scan by adding a
valid CHECK constraint to the table that allows only rows satisfying the desired partition constraint
before running this command. The CHECK constraint will be used to determine that the table need not
be scanned to validate the partition constraint. This does not work, however, if any of the partition
keys is an expression and the partition does not accept NULL values. If attaching a list partition
that will not accept NULL values, also add NOT NULL constraint to the partition key column, unless
it's an expression.
If the new partition is a foreign table, nothing is done to verify that all the rows in the foreign
table obey the partition constraint. (See the discussion in CREATE FOREIGN TABLE
(CREATE_FOREIGN_TABLE(7)) about constraints on the foreign table.)
DETACH PARTITION partition_name
This form detaches specified partition of the target table. The detached partition continues to exist
as a standalone table, but no longer has any ties to the table from which it was detached.
All the forms of ALTER TABLE that act on a single table, except RENAME, SET SCHEMA, ATTACH PARTITION, and
DETACH PARTITION can be combined into a list of multiple alterations to be applied together. For example,
it is possible to add several columns and/or alter the type of several columns 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 or tablespace of a table, you must also
have CREATE privilege on the new schema or tablespace. To add the table as a new child of a parent table,
you must own the parent table as well. Also, to attach a table as a new partition of the table, you must
own the table being attached. 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 anyway.) To add a column or alter a column type or
use the OF clause, you must also have USAGE privilege on the data type.
PARAMETERS
IF EXISTS
Do not throw an error if the table does not exist. A notice is issued in this case.
name
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table to alter. If ONLY is specified before the
table name, only that table 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
Name of a new or existing column.
new_column_name
New name for an existing column.
new_name
New name for the table.
data_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 a new or existing constraint.
CASCADE
Automatically drop objects that depend on the dropped column or constraint (for example, views
referencing the column), and in turn all objects that depend on those objects (see Section 5.13).
RESTRICT
Refuse to drop the column or constraint if there are any dependent 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 internally generated constraint triggers such as those that are used to implement
foreign key constraints or deferrable uniqueness and exclusion constraints.)
USER
Disable or enable all triggers belonging to the table except for internally generated constraint
triggers such as those that are used to implement foreign key constraints or deferrable uniqueness
and exclusion constraints.
index_name
The name of an existing index.
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.
partition_name
The name of the table to attach as a new partition or to detach from this table.
partition_bound_spec
The partition bound specification for a new partition. Refer to CREATE TABLE (CREATE_TABLE(7)) for
more details on the syntax of the same.
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). If there is no DEFAULT clause, this is merely a
metadata change and does not require any immediate update of the table's data; the added NULL values are
supplied on readout, instead.
Adding a column with a DEFAULT clause or changing the type of an existing column will require the entire
table and its indexes to be rewritten. As an exception when changing the type of an existing column, if
the USING clause does not change the column contents and the old type is either binary coercible to the
new type or an unconstrained domain over the new type, a table rewrite is not needed; but any indexes on
the affected columns must still be rebuilt. Adding or removing a system oid column also requires
rewriting the entire table. Table and/or index rebuilds may take a significant amount of time for a large
table; and will temporarily require as much as double the disk space.
Adding a CHECK or NOT NULL constraint requires scanning the table to verify that existing rows meet the
constraint, but does not require a table rewrite.
Similarly, when attaching a new partition it may be scanned to verify that existing rows meet the
partition 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.
Scanning a large table to verify a new foreign key or check constraint can take a long time, and other
updates to the table are locked out until the ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT command is committed. The main
purpose of the NOT VALID constraint option is to reduce the impact of adding a constraint on concurrent
updates. With NOT VALID, the ADD CONSTRAINT command does not scan the table and can be committed
immediately. After that, a VALIDATE CONSTRAINT command can be issued to verify that existing rows satisfy
the constraint. The validation step does not need to lock out concurrent updates, since it knows that
other transactions will be enforcing the constraint for rows that they insert or update; only
pre-existing rows need to be checked. Hence, validation acquires only a SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE lock on
the table being altered. (If the constraint is a foreign key then a ROW SHARE lock is also required on
the table referenced by the constraint.) In addition to improving concurrency, it can be useful to use
NOT VALID and VALIDATE CONSTRAINT in cases where the table is known to contain pre-existing violations.
Once the constraint is in place, no new violations can be inserted, and the existing problems can be
corrected at leisure until VALIDATE CONSTRAINT finally succeeds.
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. (These statements do not apply when dropping the system oid column; that is
done with an immediate rewrite.)
To force immediate reclamation of space occupied by a dropped column, you can execute one of the forms of
ALTER TABLE that performs a rewrite of the whole table. This results in reconstructing each row with the
dropped column replaced by a null value.
The rewriting forms of ALTER TABLE are not MVCC-safe. After a table rewrite, the table will appear empty
to concurrent transactions, if they are using a snapshot taken before the rewrite occurred. See
Section 13.5 for more details.
The USING option of SET DATA 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 SET DATA 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, SET DATA TYPE might fail to convert 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 same to the descendants. This ensures that the descendants always have
columns matching the parent. Similarly, a constraint cannot be renamed in the parent without also
renaming it in all descendants, so that constraints also match between the parent and its descendants.
Also, because selecting from the parent also selects from its descendants, a constraint on the parent
cannot be marked valid unless it is also marked valid for those descendants. In all of these cases, ALTER
TABLE ONLY will be rejected.
A recursive DROP COLUMN operation will remove a descendant table's column only if the descendant does not
inherit that column from any other parents and never had an independent definition of the column. A
nonrecursive DROP COLUMN (i.e., ALTER TABLE ONLY ... DROP COLUMN) never removes any descendant columns,
but instead marks them as independently defined rather than inherited. A nonrecursive DROP COLUMN command
will fail for a partitioned table, because all partitions of a table must have the same columns as the
partitioning root.
The actions for identity columns (ADD GENERATED, SET etc., DROP IDENTITY), as well as the actions
TRIGGER, CLUSTER, OWNER, and TABLESPACE never recurse to descendant tables; that is, they always act as
though ONLY were specified. Adding a constraint recurses only for CHECK constraints that are not marked
NO INHERIT.
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. Chapter 5 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 SET DATA 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 automatically 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 rename an existing constraint:
ALTER TABLE distributors RENAME CONSTRAINT zipchk TO zip_check;
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 and all its children:
ALTER TABLE distributors ADD CONSTRAINT zipchk CHECK (char_length(zipcode) = 5);
To add a check constraint only to a table and not to its children:
ALTER TABLE distributors ADD CONSTRAINT zipchk CHECK (char_length(zipcode) = 5) NO INHERIT;
(The check constraint will not be inherited by future children, either.)
To remove a check constraint from a table and all its children:
ALTER TABLE distributors DROP CONSTRAINT zipchk;
To remove a check constraint from one table only:
ALTER TABLE ONLY distributors DROP CONSTRAINT zipchk;
(The check constraint remains in place for any child tables.)
To add a foreign key constraint to a table:
ALTER TABLE distributors ADD CONSTRAINT distfk FOREIGN KEY (address) REFERENCES addresses (address);
To add a foreign key constraint to a table with the least impact on other work:
ALTER TABLE distributors ADD CONSTRAINT distfk FOREIGN KEY (address) REFERENCES addresses (address) NOT VALID;
ALTER TABLE distributors VALIDATE CONSTRAINT distfk;
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;
To recreate a primary key constraint, without blocking updates while the index is rebuilt:
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX CONCURRENTLY dist_id_temp_idx ON distributors (dist_id);
ALTER TABLE distributors DROP CONSTRAINT distributors_pkey,
ADD CONSTRAINT distributors_pkey PRIMARY KEY USING INDEX dist_id_temp_idx;
Attach a partition to range partitioned table:
ALTER TABLE measurement
ATTACH PARTITION measurement_y2016m07 FOR VALUES FROM ('2016-07-01') TO ('2016-08-01');
Attach a partition to list partitioned table:
ALTER TABLE cities
ATTACH PARTITION cities_ab FOR VALUES IN ('a', 'b');
Detach a partition from partitioned table:
ALTER TABLE measurement
DETACH PARTITION measurement_y2015m12;
COMPATIBILITY
The forms ADD (without USING INDEX), DROP [COLUMN], DROP IDENTITY, RESTART, SET DEFAULT, SET DATA TYPE
(without USING), SET GENERATED, and SET sequence_option 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 disallows zero-column tables.
SEE ALSO
CREATE TABLE (CREATE_TABLE(7))