ALTER 
INDEX(7)							   SQL Commands 						    ALTER INDEX(7)

NAME

       ALTER INDEX - change the definition of an index

SYNOPSIS

       ALTER INDEX name RENAME TO new_name
       ALTER INDEX name SET TABLESPACE tablespace_name
       ALTER INDEX name SET ( storage_parameter = value [, ... ] )
       ALTER INDEX name RESET ( storage_parameter [, ... ] )

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.  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 parame-
	      ter you might need to rebuild the index with REINDEX [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

       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 [reindex(7)]

SQL - Language Statements					    2010-05-14							    ALTER INDEX(7)