Thread: Is "IF EXISTS" legit in "ALTER TABLE ... RENAME"?

On 02/16/2015 01:33 PM, Ken Winter wrote:
> According to the PG 9.1 doc
> (http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql-altertable.html),

The above is the 9.4 version of the page, note the "current" in the URL.

This is the 9.1 version of the page:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.1/static/sql-altertable.html

so:

ALTER TABLE name
     RENAME TO new_name

> this is a valid flavor of ALTER TABLE:
>
> ALTER TABLE [ IF EXISTS ]name
>      RENAME TOnew_name
>
> But when I try to execute such a command, I get:
>
> ERROR:  syntax error at or near "EXISTS"
> LINE 1: ALTER TABLE IF EXISTS event
>                         ^
> QUERY:  ALTER TABLE IF EXISTS event
>      RENAME TO event_s;
> CONTEXT:  PL/pgSQL function "convert_table_to_history" line 60 at
> EXECUTE statement
>
> As you'll see, in this case the command was issued from a function.  But
> issuing it directly evokes the same error.
>
> ?!?



>
> ~ Thanks in advance
> ~ Ken


--
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@aklaver.com