Undergraduate

Database Management
Systems

Lecture 9

Hamza Shaukat
[email protected]

Information Technology University (ITU)

Faculty of Engineering
 View Constraints

Information Technology University (ITU)

Faculty of Engineering
 The ALTER TABLE Statement

Use the ALTER TABLE statement to:

▪ Add a new column
▪ Modify an existing column
▪ Drop a column.
▪ Add or Drop a Constraint.
▪ Disable or Enable a Constraint

ALTER TABLE table

ADD (column datatype [DEFAULT expr]
[, column datatype]...);

ALTER TABLE table

MODIFY (column datatype [DEFAULT expr]
[, column datatype]...);
Information Technology University (ITU)
Faculty of Engineering
Adding a Column

“…add a new
DEPT30 New column column into
DEPT30 table…”
EMPNO ENAME ANNSAL JOB
HIREDATE
------ ---------- --------
7698 BLAKE 34200 01-MAY-81
7654 MARTIN 15000 28-SEP-81
7499 ALLEN 19200 20-FEB-81
7844 TURNER 18000 08-SEP-81
...
DEPT30
EMPNO ENAME ANNSAL JOB
HIREDATE
------ ---------- --------
7698 BLAKE 34200 01-MAY-81
7654 MARTIN 15000 28-SEP-81
7499 ALLEN 19200 20-FEB-81
7844 TURNER 18000 08-SEP-81
...
Information Technology University (ITU)
Faculty of Engineering
Adding a Column

▪ You use the ADD clause to add columns.

SQL> ALTER TABLE dept30
2 ADD (job VARCHAR(9));
Table altered.

• The new column becomes the last column.

EMPNO ENAME ANNSAL HIREDATE JOB
--------- ---------- --------- --------- ----
7698 BLAKE 34200 01-MAY-81
7654 MARTIN 15000 28-SEP-81
7499 ALLEN 19200 20-FEB-81
7844 TURNER 18000 08-SEP-81
...
6 rows selected.

Information Technology University (ITU)

Faculty of Engineering
Modifying a Column

▪ You can change a column’s datatype, size, and

default value.

ALTER TABLE cars

ALTER COLUMN color TYPE VARCHAR(30);
Table altered.

▪ A change to the default value affects only

subsequent insertions to the table.

ALTER TABLE employee

ALTER COLUMN salary
SET DEFAULT 0;

Information Technology University (ITU)

Faculty of Engineering
 Modify Example

CREATE TABLE customer_groups (

id serial PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR NOT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE customers (

id serial PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR NOT NULL,
phone VARCHAR NOT NULL,
email VARCHAR,
group_id INT,
FOREIGN KEY (group_id) REFERENCES customer_groups (id)
);

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Faculty of Engineering
 Modify Example

Single Column

ALTER TABLE customers

RENAME COLUMN email TO contact_email;

Multiple Columns

ALTER TABLE customers

RENAME COLUMN name TO customer_name;

ALTER TABLE customers

RENAME COLUMN phone TO contact_phone;

Information Technology University (ITU)

Faculty of Engineering
 Dropping and Renaming a Column

Use the DROP COLUMN clause to drop columns you no longer need from the
table.

ALTER TABLE dept30

DROP COLUMN Job;
Table altered.

• Use the RENAME COLUMN clause to rename

a col.
ALTER TABLE dept30
RENAME COLUMN Job TO Designation;
Table altered.

Information Technology University (ITU)

Faculty of Engineering
Adding a Constraint

ALTER TABLE table

ADD [CONSTRAINT constraint] type (column);

Add a FOREIGN KEY constraint to the EMP table

indicating that a manager must already exist as a
valid employee in the EMP table.

SQL> ALTER TABLE emp

2 ADD CONSTRAINT emp_mgr_fk
3 FOREIGN KEY(mgr) REFERENCES emp(empno);
Table altered.

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Faculty of Engineering
 Example of Adding Constraint

ALTER TABLE student

ADD CONSTRAINT age_constraint CHECK (age >= 10);

articles=# \d student;
Table "public.student"
Column | Type | Collation | Nullable | Default
--------+-----------------------+-----------+----------+-------------------------------------
id | integer | | not null | nextval('student_id_seq'::regclass)
name | character varying(50) | | not null |
age | integer | | |
gender | character varying(50) | | not null |
marks | double precision | | |
Indexes:
"student_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (id)
Check constraints:
"age_constraint" CHECK (age >= 10)

11

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Faculty of Engineering
Dropping a Constraint

Remove foreign key constraint from the EMP table.

SQL> ALTER TABLE emp
2 DROP CONSTRAINT emp_mgr_fk;
Table altered.
• Remove the PRIMARY KEY constraint on the DEPT table and drop the associated
FOREIGN KEY constraint on the EMP.DEPTNO column.

ALTER TABLE customers

DROP Constraint st_id_pk(primary_key_name) cascade;

• To drop a DEFAULT constraint

SQL> ALTER TABLE student
2 ALTER COLUMN program DROP DEFAULT;
Table altered.

Information Technology University (ITU)

Faculty of Engineering
Disabling Constraints

▪ Execute the DISABLE clause of the ALTER

TABLE statement to deactivate an integrity
constraint.
▪ Apply the CASCADE option to disable
dependent integrity constraints.

SQL> ALTER TABLE emp

2 DISABLE CONSTRAINT emp_empno_pk CASCADE;
Table altered.

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Changing the Name of an Object

▪ To change the name of a table, view, sequence, or

synonym, you execute the RENAME statement.

ALTER TABLE IF EXISTS table_name

RENAME TO new_table_name;

Example:
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS vendors;
CREATE TABLE vendors (
id serial PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR NOT NULL
);

ALTER TABLE vendors RENAME TO suppliers;

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Dropping a Table

▪ All data and structure in the table is deleted.

▪ Any pending transactions are committed.
▪ All indexes are dropped.
▪ You cannot roll back this statement.

DROP TABLE [IF EXISTS] table_name

[CASCADE | RESTRICT];

▪ NOTE: if the table has a reference in another table,

the above command may not work. To drop all the
references as well, use the following:

DROP TABLE authors CASCADE;

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Faculty of Engineering
 Question

Write a SQL statement to add a primary key to the columns location_id in the
locations table. And the existing primary key is country id.
Here is the structure of the table locations.

postgres=# \d locations
Column | Type | Modifiers
-----------------------+-------------------------------+-----------
location_id | numeric(4,0) |
street_address | character varying(40) |
postal_code | character varying(12) |
city | character varying(30) |
state_province | character varying(25) |
country_id | character varying(2) |

Solution

16

Information Technology University (ITU)

Faculty of Engineering