xenial (7) ALTER_INDEX.7.gz

NAME

       ALTER_INDEX - change the definition of an index

SYNOPSIS

       ALTER INDEX [ IF EXISTS ] name RENAME TO new_name
       ALTER INDEX [ IF EXISTS ] name SET TABLESPACE tablespace_name
       ALTER INDEX [ IF EXISTS ] name SET ( storage_parameter [= value] [, ... ] )
       ALTER INDEX [ IF EXISTS ] name RESET ( storage_parameter [, ... ] )
       ALTER INDEX ALL IN TABLESPACE name [ OWNED BY role_name [, ... ] ]
           SET TABLESPACE new_tablespace [ NOWAIT ]

DESCRIPTION

       ALTER INDEX changes the definition of an existing index. There are several subforms:

       RENAME
           The RENAME form changes the name of the index. There is no effect on the stored data.

       SET TABLESPACE
           This form changes the index's tablespace to the specified tablespace and moves the data file(s)
           associated with the index to the new tablespace. To change the tablespace of an index, you must own
           the index and have CREATE privilege on the new tablespace. All indexes in the current database in a
           tablespace can be moved by using the ALL IN TABLESPACE form, which will lock all indexes to be moved
           and then move each one. This form also supports OWNED BY, which will only move indexes 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 will not be moved by this
           command, use ALTER DATABASE or explicit ALTER INDEX invocations instead if desired. See also CREATE
           TABLESPACE (CREATE_TABLESPACE(7)).

       SET ( storage_parameter [= value] [, ... ] )
           This form changes one or more index-method-specific storage parameters for the index. See CREATE
           INDEX (CREATE_INDEX(7)) for details on the available parameters. Note that the index contents will
           not be modified immediately by this command; depending on the parameter you might need to rebuild the
           index with REINDEX(7) to get the desired effects.

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

PARAMETERS

       IF EXISTS
           Do not throw an error if the index does not exist. A notice is issued in this case.

       name
           The name (possibly schema-qualified) of an existing index to alter.

       new_name
           The new name for the index.

       tablespace_name
           The tablespace to which the index will be moved.

       storage_parameter
           The name of an index-method-specific storage parameter.

       value
           The new value for an index-method-specific storage parameter. This might be a number or a word
           depending on the parameter.

NOTES

       These operations are also possible using ALTER TABLE (ALTER_TABLE(7)).  ALTER INDEX is in fact just an
       alias for the forms of ALTER TABLE that apply to indexes.

       There was formerly an ALTER INDEX OWNER variant, but this is now ignored (with a warning). An index
       cannot have an owner different from its table's owner. Changing the table's owner automatically changes
       the index as well.

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

EXAMPLES

       To rename an existing index:

           ALTER INDEX distributors RENAME TO suppliers;

       To move an index to a different tablespace:

           ALTER INDEX distributors SET TABLESPACE fasttablespace;

       To change an index's fill factor (assuming that the index method supports it):

           ALTER INDEX distributors SET (fillfactor = 75);
           REINDEX INDEX distributors;

COMPATIBILITY

       ALTER INDEX is a PostgreSQL extension.

SEE ALSO

       CREATE INDEX (CREATE_INDEX(7)), REINDEX(7)