<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >ALTER INDEX</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79"><LINK REV="MADE" HREF="mailto:pgsql-docs@postgresql.org"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="PostgreSQL 8.0.11 Documentation" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="SQL Commands" HREF="sql-commands.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="ALTER GROUP" HREF="sql-altergroup.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="ALTER LANGUAGE" HREF="sql-alterlanguage.html"><LINK REL="STYLESHEET" TYPE="text/css" HREF="stylesheet.css"><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><META NAME="creation" CONTENT="2007-02-02T03:57:22"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="REFENTRY" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="5" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >PostgreSQL 8.0.11 Documentation</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-altergroup.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-altergroup.html" >Fast Backward</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-alterlanguage.html" >Fast Forward</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-alterlanguage.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><H1 ><A NAME="SQL-ALTERINDEX" ></A >ALTER INDEX</H1 ><DIV CLASS="REFNAMEDIV" ><A NAME="AEN36723" ></A ><H2 >Name</H2 >ALTER INDEX -- change the definition of an index</DIV ><A NAME="AEN36726" ></A ><DIV CLASS="REFSYNOPSISDIV" ><A NAME="AEN36728" ></A ><H2 >Synopsis</H2 ><PRE CLASS="SYNOPSIS" >ALTER INDEX <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >name</I ></TT > <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >action</I ></TT > [, ... ] ALTER INDEX <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >name</I ></TT > RENAME TO <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >new_name</I ></TT > where <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >action</I ></TT > is one of: OWNER TO <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >new_owner</I ></TT > SET TABLESPACE <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >indexspace_name</I ></TT ></PRE ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN36737" ></A ><H2 >Description</H2 ><P > <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >ALTER INDEX</TT > changes the definition of an existing index. There are several subforms: <P ></P ></P><DIV CLASS="VARIABLELIST" ><DL ><DT ><TT CLASS="LITERAL" >OWNER</TT ></DT ><DD ><P > This form changes the owner of the index to the specified user. This can only be done by a superuser. </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="LITERAL" >SET TABLESPACE</TT ></DT ><DD ><P > 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. See also <A HREF="sql-createtablespace.html" ><I >CREATE TABLESPACE</I ></A >. </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="LITERAL" >RENAME</TT ></DT ><DD ><P > The <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >RENAME</TT > form changes the name of the index. There is no effect on the stored data. </P ></DD ></DL ></DIV ><P> </P ><P > All the actions except <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >RENAME</TT > can be combined into a list of multiple alterations to apply in parallel. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN36761" ></A ><H2 >Parameters</H2 ><P ></P ><DIV CLASS="VARIABLELIST" ><DL ><DT ><TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >name</I ></TT ></DT ><DD ><P > The name (possibly schema-qualified) of an existing index to alter. </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >new_name</I ></TT ></DT ><DD ><P > New name for the index. </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >new_owner</I ></TT ></DT ><DD ><P > The user name of the new owner of the index. </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >tablespace_name</I ></TT ></DT ><DD ><P > The tablespace name to which the index will be moved. </P ></DD ></DL ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN36784" ></A ><H2 >Notes</H2 ><P > These operations are also possible using <A HREF="sql-altertable.html" ><I >ALTER TABLE</I ></A >. <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >ALTER INDEX</TT > is in fact just an alias for the forms of <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >ALTER TABLE</TT > that apply to indexes. </P ><P > Changing any part of a system catalog index is not permitted. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN36791" ></A ><H2 >Examples</H2 ><P > To rename an existing index: </P><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >ALTER INDEX distributors RENAME TO suppliers;</PRE ><P> </P ><P > To move a index to a different tablespace: </P><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >ALTER INDEX distributors SET TABLESPACE fasttablespace;</PRE ><P> </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN36797" ></A ><H2 >Compatibility</H2 ><P > <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >ALTER INDEX</TT > is a <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > extension. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-altergroup.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-alterlanguage.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >ALTER GROUP</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-commands.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >ALTER LANGUAGE</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >