ALTER INDEX statement

Use this statement to rename an index, primary key, or foreign key, or to change the clustered nature of an index.

Syntax
ALTER { INDEX index-name 
| [ INDEX ] FOREIGN KEY role-name 
| [ INDEX ] PRIMARY KEY } 
ON [ owner.]object-name { REBUILD | rename-clause | cluster-clause } }
object-name : table-name | materialized-view-name
rename-clause : RENAME { AS | TO } new-index-name
cluster-clause : CLUSTERED | NONCLUSTERED
Parameters
  • rename-clause   Specify the new name for the index, primary key, or foreign key.

  • cluster-clause   Specify whether the index should be changed to CLUSTERED or NONCLUSTERED. Only one index on a table can be clustered.

  • REBUILD clause   Use this clause to rebuild an index, instead of dropping and recreating it.

Remarks

The ALTER INDEX statement carries out two tasks:

  • It can be used to rename an index, primary key, or foreign key.

  • It can be used to change an index type from nonclustered to clustered, or vice versa.

    The ALTER INDEX statement can be used to change the clustering specification of the index, but does not reorganize the data. As well, only one index per table or materialized view can be clustered.

ALTER INDEX cannot be used to change an index on a local temporary table. An attempt to do so will result in an Index not found error.

This statement cannot be executed when there are cursors opened with the WITH HOLD clause that use either statement or transaction snapshots. See Snapshot isolation.

Permissions

Must own the table, or have REFERENCES permissions on the table or materialized view, or have DBA authority.

Side effects

Automatic commit. Clears the Results tab in the Results pane in Interactive SQL. Closes all cursors for the current connection.

See also
Standards and compatibility
  • SQL/2003   Vendor extension.

Example

The following statement renames the index IX_product_name on the Products table to ixProductName:

ALTER INDEX IX_product_name ON Products
RENAME TO ixProductName;

The following statement changes IX_product_name to be a clustered index:

ALTER INDEX IX_product_name ON Products
CLUSTERED;