ALTER DOMAIN(7) PostgreSQL 18.6 Documentation ALTER DOMAIN(7) NAME ALTER_DOMAIN - change the definition of a domain SYNOPSIS ALTER DOMAIN name { SET DEFAULT expression | DROP DEFAULT } ALTER DOMAIN name { SET | DROP } NOT NULL ALTER DOMAIN name ADD domain_constraint [ NOT VALID ] ALTER DOMAIN name DROP CONSTRAINT [ IF EXISTS ] constraint_name [ RESTRICT | CASCADE ] ALTER DOMAIN name RENAME CONSTRAINT constraint_name TO new_constraint_name ALTER DOMAIN name VALIDATE CONSTRAINT constraint_name ALTER DOMAIN name OWNER TO { new_owner | CURRENT_ROLE | CURRENT_USER | SESSION_USER } ALTER DOMAIN name RENAME TO new_name ALTER DOMAIN name SET SCHEMA new_schema where domain_constraint is: [ CONSTRAINT constraint_name ] { NOT NULL | CHECK (expression) } DESCRIPTION ALTER DOMAIN changes the definition of an existing domain. There are sev- eral sub-forms: SET/DROP DEFAULT These forms set or remove the default value for a domain. Note that de- faults only apply to subsequent INSERT commands; they do not affect rows already in a table using the domain. SET/DROP NOT NULL These forms change whether a domain is marked to allow NULL values or to reject NULL values. You can only SET NOT NULL when the columns using the domain contain no null values. ADD domain_constraint [ NOT VALID ] This form adds a new constraint to a domain. When a new constraint is added to a domain, all columns using that domain will be checked against the newly added constraint. These checks can be suppressed by adding the new constraint using the NOT VALID option; the constraint can later be made valid using ALTER DOMAIN ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT. Newly inserted or updated rows are always checked against all con- straints, even those marked NOT VALID. NOT VALID is only accepted for CHECK constraints. DROP CONSTRAINT [ IF EXISTS ] This form drops constraints on a domain. If IF EXISTS is specified and the constraint does not exist, no error is thrown. In this case a no- tice is issued instead. RENAME CONSTRAINT This form changes the name of a constraint on a domain. VALIDATE CONSTRAINT This form validates a constraint previously added as NOT VALID, that is, it verifies that all values in table columns of the domain type satisfy the specified constraint. OWNER This form changes the owner of the domain to the specified user. RENAME This form changes the name of the domain. SET SCHEMA This form changes the schema of the domain. Any constraints associated with the domain are moved into the new schema as well. You must own the domain to use ALTER DOMAIN. To change the schema of a do- main, 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 domain's schema. (These restrictions en- force that altering the owner doesn't do anything you couldn't do by drop- ping and recreating the domain. However, a superuser can alter ownership of any domain anyway.) PARAMETERS name The name (possibly schema-qualified) of an existing domain to alter. domain_constraint New domain constraint for the domain. constraint_name Name of an existing constraint to drop or rename. NOT VALID Do not verify existing stored data for constraint validity. CASCADE Automatically drop objects that depend on the constraint, and in turn all objects that depend on those objects (see Section 5.15). RESTRICT Refuse to drop the constraint if there are any dependent objects. This is the default behavior. new_name The new name for the domain. new_constraint_name The new name for the constraint. new_owner The user name of the new owner of the domain. new_schema The new schema for the domain. NOTES Although ALTER DOMAIN ADD CONSTRAINT attempts to verify that existing stored data satisfies the new constraint, this check is not bulletproof, because the command cannot "see" table rows that are newly inserted or up- dated and not yet committed. If there is a hazard that concurrent opera- tions might insert bad data, the way to proceed is to add the constraint using the NOT VALID option, commit that command, wait until all transac- tions started before that commit have finished, and then issue ALTER DOMAIN VALIDATE CONSTRAINT to search for data violating the constraint. This method is reliable because once the constraint is committed, all new trans- actions are guaranteed to enforce it against new values of the domain type. Currently, ALTER DOMAIN ADD CONSTRAINT, ALTER DOMAIN VALIDATE CONSTRAINT, and ALTER DOMAIN SET NOT NULL will fail if the named domain or any derived domain is used within a container-type column (a composite, array, or range column) in any table in the database. They should eventually be improved to be able to verify the new constraint for such nested values. EXAMPLES To add a NOT NULL constraint to a domain: ALTER DOMAIN zipcode SET NOT NULL; To remove a NOT NULL constraint from a domain: ALTER DOMAIN zipcode DROP NOT NULL; To add a check constraint to a domain: ALTER DOMAIN zipcode ADD CONSTRAINT zipchk CHECK (char_length(VALUE) = 5); To remove a check constraint from a domain: ALTER DOMAIN zipcode DROP CONSTRAINT zipchk; To rename a check constraint on a domain: ALTER DOMAIN zipcode RENAME CONSTRAINT zipchk TO zip_check; To move the domain into a different schema: ALTER DOMAIN zipcode SET SCHEMA customers; COMPATIBILITY ALTER DOMAIN conforms to the SQL standard, except for the OWNER, RENAME, SET SCHEMA, and VALIDATE CONSTRAINT variants, which are PostgreSQL exten- sions. The NOT VALID clause of the ADD CONSTRAINT variant is also a Post- greSQL extension. SEE ALSO CREATE DOMAIN (CREATE_DOMAIN(7)), DROP DOMAIN (DROP_DOMAIN(7)) PostgreSQL 18.6 2026 ALTER DOMAIN(7)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | PARAMETERS | NOTES | EXAMPLES | COMPATIBILITY | SEE ALSO
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