ALTER VIEW(7)

NAME
ALTER_VIEW - change the definition of a view

SYNOPSIS

ALTER VIEW [ IF EXISTS ] name ALTER [ COLUMN ] column_name SET DEFAULT expression
ALTER VIEW [ IF EXISTS ] name ALTER [ COLUMN ] column_name DROP DEFAULT
ALTER VIEW [ IF EXISTS ] name OWNER TO { new_owner | CURRENT_ROLE | CURRENT_USER | SESSION_USER }
ALTER VIEW [ IF EXISTS ] name RENAME [ COLUMN ] column_name TO new_column_name
ALTER VIEW [ IF EXISTS ] name RENAME TO new_name
ALTER VIEW [ IF EXISTS ] name SET SCHEMA new_schema
ALTER VIEW [ IF EXISTS ] name SET ( view_option_name [= view_option_value] [, ... ] )
ALTER VIEW [ IF EXISTS ] name RESET ( view_option_name [, ... ] )

DESCRIPTION

ALTER VIEW changes various auxiliary properties of a view. (If you want to modify the view's defining query, use CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW.)

You must own the view to use ALTER VIEW. To change a view's schema, you must also have CREATE privilege on the new schema. To alter the owner, you must be able to SET ROLE to the new owning role, and that role must have CREATE privilege on the view's schema. (These restrictions enforce that altering the owner doesn't do anything you couldn't do by dropping and recreating the view. However, a superuser can alter ownership of any view anyway.)

PARAMETERS

name
    The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing view.

column_name
    Name of an existing column.

new_column_name
    New name for an existing column.

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

SET/DROP DEFAULT
    These forms set or remove the default value for a column. A view column's default value is substituted into any INSERT or UPDATE command whose target is the view, before applying any rules or triggers for the view. The view's default will therefore take precedence over any default values from underlying relations.

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

new_name
    The new name for the view.

new_schema
    The new schema for the view.

SET ( view_option_name [= view_option_value] [, ... ] )
RESET ( view_option_name [, ... ] )
    Sets or resets a view option. Currently supported options are:

    check_option (enum)
        Changes the check option of the view. The value must be local or cascaded.

    security_barrier (boolean)
        Changes the security-barrier property of the view. The value must be a Boolean value, such as true or false.

    security_invoker (boolean)
        Changes the security-invoker property of the view. The value must be a Boolean value, such as true or false.

NOTES

For historical reasons, ALTER TABLE can be used with views too; but the only variants of ALTER TABLE that are allowed with views are equivalent to the ones shown above.

EXAMPLES

To rename the view foo to bar:

    ALTER VIEW foo RENAME TO bar;

To attach a default column value to an updatable view:

    CREATE TABLE base_table (id int, ts timestamptz);
    CREATE VIEW a_view AS SELECT * FROM base_table;
    ALTER VIEW a_view ALTER COLUMN ts SET DEFAULT now();
    INSERT INTO base_table(id) VALUES(1);  -- ts will receive a NULL
    INSERT INTO a_view(id) VALUES(2);  -- ts will receive the current time

COMPATIBILITY

ALTER VIEW is a PostgreSQL extension of the SQL standard.

SEE ALSO
CREATE VIEW (CREATE_VIEW(7)), DROP VIEW (DROP_VIEW(7))