ALTER TYPE
ALTER TYPE — change the definition of a type
Synopsis
ALTER TYPEname
action
[, ... ] ALTER TYPEname
OWNER TO {new_owner
| CURRENT_USER | SESSION_USER } ALTER TYPEname
RENAME ATTRIBUTEattribute_name
TOnew_attribute_name
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ] ALTER TYPEname
RENAME TOnew_name
ALTER TYPEname
SET SCHEMAnew_schema
ALTER TYPEname
ADD VALUE [ IF NOT EXISTS ]new_enum_value
[ { BEFORE | AFTER }neighbor_enum_value
] ALTER TYPEname
RENAME VALUEexisting_enum_value
TOnew_enum_value
whereaction
is one of: ADD ATTRIBUTEattribute_name
data_type
[ COLLATEcollation
] [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ] DROP ATTRIBUTE [ IF EXISTS ]attribute_name
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ] ALTER ATTRIBUTEattribute_name
[ SET DATA ] TYPEdata_type
[ COLLATEcollation
] [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
Description
ALTER TYPE
changes the definition of an existing type. There are several subforms:
ADD ATTRIBUTE
This form adds a new attribute to a composite type, using the same syntax as CREATE TYPE.
DROP ATTRIBUTE [ IF EXISTS ]
This form drops an attribute from a composite type. If
IF EXISTS
is specified and the attribute does not exist, no error is thrown. In this case a notice is issued instead.SET DATA TYPE
This form changes the type of an attribute of a composite type.
OWNER
This form changes the owner of the type.
RENAME
This form changes the name of the type or the name of an individual attribute of a composite type.
SET SCHEMA
This form moves the type into another schema.
ADD VALUE [ IF NOT EXISTS ] [ BEFORE | AFTER ]
This form adds a new value to an enum type. The new value's place in the enum's ordering can be specified as being
BEFORE
orAFTER
one of the existing values. Otherwise, the new item is added at the end of the list of values.If
IF NOT EXISTS
is specified, it is not an error if the type already contains the new value: a notice is issued but no other action is taken. Otherwise, an error will occur if the new value is already present.RENAME VALUE
This form renames a value of an enum type. The value's place in the enum's ordering is not affected. An error will occur if the specified value is not present or the new name is already present.
The ADD ATTRIBUTE
, DROP ATTRIBUTE
, and ALTER ATTRIBUTE
actions can be combined into a list of multiple alterations to apply in parallel. For example, it is possible to add several attributes and/or alter the type of several attributes in a single command.
You must own the type to use ALTER TYPE
. To change the schema of a type, you must also have CREATE
privilege on the new schema. 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 type's schema. (These restrictions enforce that altering the owner doesn't do anything you couldn't do by dropping and recreating the type. However, a superuser can alter ownership of any type anyway.) To add an attribute or alter an attribute type, you must also have USAGE
privilege on the data type.
Parameters
name
The name (possibly schema-qualified) of an existing type to alter.
new_name
The new name for the type.
new_owner
The user name of the new owner of the type.
new_schema
The new schema for the type.
attribute_name
The name of the attribute to add, alter, or drop.
new_attribute_name
The new name of the attribute to be renamed.
data_type
The data type of the attribute to add, or the new type of the attribute to alter.
new_enum_value
The new value to be added to an enum type's list of values, or the new name to be given to an existing value. Like all enum literals, it needs to be quoted.
neighbor_enum_value
The existing enum value that the new value should be added immediately before or after in the enum type's sort ordering. Like all enum literals, it needs to be quoted.
existing_enum_value
The existing enum value that should be renamed. Like all enum literals, it needs to be quoted.
CASCADE
Automatically propagate the operation to typed tables of the type being altered, and their descendants.
RESTRICT
Refuse the operation if the type being altered is the type of a typed table. This is the default.
Notes
ALTER TYPE ... ADD VALUE
(the form that adds a new value to an enum type) cannot be executed inside a transaction block.
Comparisons involving an added enum value will sometimes be slower than comparisons involving only original members of the enum type. This will usually only occur if BEFORE
or AFTER
is used to set the new value's sort position somewhere other than at the end of the list. However, sometimes it will happen even though the new value is added at the end (this occurs if the OID counter “wrapped around” since the original creation of the enum type). The slowdown is usually insignificant; but if it matters, optimal performance can be regained by dropping and recreating the enum type, or by dumping and reloading the database.
Examples
To rename a data type:
ALTER TYPE electronic_mail RENAME TO email;
To change the owner of the type email
to joe
:
ALTER TYPE email OWNER TO joe;
To change the schema of the type email
to customers
:
ALTER TYPE email SET SCHEMA customers;
To add a new attribute to a type:
ALTER TYPE compfoo ADD ATTRIBUTE f3 int;
To add a new value to an enum type in a particular sort position:
ALTER TYPE colors ADD VALUE 'orange' AFTER 'red';
To rename an enum value:
ALTER TYPE colors RENAME VALUE 'purple' TO 'mauve';
Compatibility
The variants to add and drop attributes are part of the SQL standard; the other variants are PostgreSQL extensions.