ALTER DATABASE

Alters metadata associated with a database by setting DBPROPERTIES. The specified property values override any existing value with the same property name. The usage of SCHEMA and DATABASE are interchangeable and one can be used in place of the other. An error message is issued if the database is not found in the system. This command is mostly used to record the metadata for a database and may be used for auditing purposes.

Syntax 

ALTER { DATABASE | SCHEMA } database_name
    SET DBPROPERTIES ( property_name = property_value [ , ... ] )

Parameters

  • database_name

    The name of the database to be altered.

Examples 

-- Creates a database named `inventory`.
CREATE DATABASE inventory;

-- Alters the database to set properties `Edited-by` and `Edit-date`.
ALTER DATABASE inventory SET DBPROPERTIES ('Edited-by' = 'John', 'Edit-date' = '01/01/2001');

-- Verify that properties are set.
DESCRIBE DATABASE EXTENDED inventory;
+-------------------------+------------------------------------------+
|database_description_item|                database_description_value|
+-------------------------+------------------------------------------+
|            Database Name|                                 inventory|
|              Description|                                          |
|                 Location|   file:/temp/spark-warehouse/inventory.db|
|               Properties|((Edit-date,01/01/2001), (Edited-by,John))|
+-------------------------+------------------------------------------+