markdown/reference/sql/ALTER-TYPE.html.md.erb

---
title: ALTER TYPE
---

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Changes the definition of a data type.

## <a id="synopsis"></a>Synopsis

``` pre
ALTER TYPE <name>
   OWNER TO <new_owner> | SET SCHEMA <new_schema>
         
```

## <a id="desc"></a>Description

 `ALTER TYPE` changes the definition of an existing type. You can change the owner and the schema of a type.

You must own the type to use `ALTER TYPE`. To change the schema of a type, 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 type's schema. (These restrictions enforce that altering the owner does not do anything that could be done by dropping and recreating the type. However, a superuser can alter ownership of any type.)

## <a id="altertype__section4"></a>Parameters

<dt> \<name\>   </dt>
<dd>The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing type to alter.</dd>

<dt> \<new\_owner\>   </dt>
<dd>The user name of the new owner of the type.</dd>

<dt> \<new\_schema\>   </dt>
<dd>The new schema for the type.</dd>

## <a id="altertype__section5"></a>Examples

To change the owner of the user-defined type `email` to `joe`:

``` pre
ALTER TYPE email OWNER TO joe;
```

To change the schema of the user-defined type `email` to `customers`:

``` pre
ALTER TYPE email SET SCHEMA customers;
```

## <a id="altertype__section6"></a>Compatibility

There is no `ALTER TYPE` statement in the SQL standard.

## <a id="see"></a>See Also

[CREATE TYPE](CREATE-TYPE.html), [DROP TYPE](DROP-TYPE.html)