ALTER FUNCTION
Name
ALTER FUNCTION -- change the definition of a function
Synopsis
ALTER FUNCTION
name
( [ [
argmode
] [
argname
]
argtype
[, ...] ] )
action
[, ... ] [ RESTRICT ]
ALTER FUNCTION
name
( [ [
argmode
] [
argname
]
argtype
[, ...] ] )
RENAME TO
new_name
ALTER FUNCTION
name
( [ [
argmode
] [
argname
]
argtype
[, ...] ] )
OWNER TO
new_owner
ALTER FUNCTION
name
( [ [
argmode
] [
argname
]
argtype
[, ...] ] )
SET SCHEMA
new_schema
where
action
is one of:
CALLED ON NULL INPUT | RETURNS NULL ON NULL INPUT | STRICT
IMMUTABLE | STABLE | VOLATILE
[ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY INVOKER | [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY DEFINER
Description
ALTER FUNCTION changes the definition of a function.
You must own the function to use ALTER FUNCTION. To change a function's schema, 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 function's schema. (These restrictions enforce that altering the owner doesn't do anything you couldn't do by dropping and recreating the function. However, a superuser can alter ownership of any function anyway.)
Parameters
-
name
-
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing function.
-
argmode
-
The mode of an argument: either IN, OUT, or INOUT. If omitted, the default is IN. Note that ALTER FUNCTION does not actually pay any attention to OUT arguments, since only the input arguments are needed to determine the function's identity. So it is sufficient to list the IN and INOUT arguments.
-
argname
-
The name of an argument. Note that ALTER FUNCTION does not actually pay any attention to argument names, since only the argument data types are needed to determine the function's identity.
-
argtype
-
The data type(s) of the function's arguments (optionally schema-qualified), if any.
-
new_name
-
The new name of the function.
-
new_owner
-
The new owner of the function. Note that if the function is marked SECURITY DEFINER, it will subsequently execute as the new owner.
-
new_schema
-
The new schema for the function.
-
CALLED ON NULL INPUT
RETURNS NULL ON NULL INPUT
STRICT
-
CALLED ON NULL INPUT changes the function so that it will be invoked when some or all of its arguments are null. RETURNS NULL ON NULL INPUT or STRICT changes the function so that it is not invoked if any of its arguments are null; instead, a null result is assumed automatically. See CREATE FUNCTION for more information.
-
IMMUTABLE
STABLE
VOLATILE
-
Change the volatility of the function to the specified setting. See CREATE FUNCTION for details.
-
[ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY INVOKER
[ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY DEFINER
-
Change whether the function is a security definer or not. The key word EXTERNAL is ignored for SQL conformance. See CREATE FUNCTION for more information about this capability.
-
RESTRICT
-
Ignored for conformance with the SQL standard.
Examples
To rename the function sqrt for type integer to square_root:
ALTER FUNCTION sqrt(integer) RENAME TO square_root;
To change the owner of the function sqrt for type integer to joe:
ALTER FUNCTION sqrt(integer) OWNER TO joe;
To change the schema of the function sqrt for type integer to maths:
ALTER FUNCTION sqrt(integer) SET SCHEMA maths;
Compatibility
This statement is partially compatible with the ALTER FUNCTION statement in the SQL standard. The standard allows more properties of a function to be modified, but does not provide the ability to rename a function, make a function a security definer, or change the owner, schema, or volatility of a function. The standard also requires the RESTRICT key word, which is optional in PostgreSQL.
