SQL - ALTER PROPERTY

Updates attributes on the existing property and class in the schema.

Syntax

  1. ALTER PROPERTY <class>.<property> <attribute-name> <attribute-value>
  • <class> Defines the class to which the property belongs.
  • <property> Defines the property you want to update.
  • <attribute-name> Defines the attribute you want to change.
  • <attribute-value> Defines the value you want to set on the attribute.

Examples

  • Change the name of the property age in the class Account to born:

    1. orientdb> ALTER PROPERTY Account.age NAME born

  • Update a property to make it mandatory:

    1. orientdb>ALTER PROPERTY Account.age MANDATORY TRUE

  • Define a Regular Expression as constraint:

    1. orientdb> ALTER PROPERTY Account.gender REGEXP "[M|F]"

  • Define a field as case-insensitive to comparisons:

    1. orientdb> ALTER PROPERTY Employee.name COLLATE ci

  • Define a custom field on a property:

    1. orientdb> ALTER PROPERTY Foo.bar1 custom stereotype = visible

  • Set the default value for the current date:

    1. orientdb> ALTER PROPERTY Client.created DEFAULT sysdate()

  • Define a unqiue id that cannot be changed after creation:

    1. orientdb> ALTER PROPERTY Client.id DEFAULT uuid() READONLY
    2. orientdb> ALTER PROPERTY Client.id READONLY TRUE

Supported Attributes

Attribute Type Support Description
LINKEDCLASS String Defines the linked class name. Use NULL to remove an existing value.
LINKEDTYPE String Defines the link type. Use NULL to remove an existing value.
MIN Integer Defines the minimum value as a constraint. Use NULL to remove an existing constraint. On String attributes, it defines the minimum length of the string. On Integer attributes, it defines the minimum value for the number. On Date attributes, the earliest date accepted. For multi-value attributes (lists, sets and maps), it defines the fewest number of entries.
MANDATORY Boolean Defines whether the proprety requires a value.
MAX Integer Defines the maximum value as a constraint. Use NULL to remove an existing constraint. On String attributes, it defines the greatest length of the string. On Integer attributes, it defines the maximum value for the number. On Date attributes, the last date accepted. For multi-value attributes (lists, sets and maps), it defines the highest number of entries.
NAME String Defines the property name.
NOTNULL Boolean Defines whether the property can have a null value.
REGEX String Defines a Regular Expression as constraint. Use NULL to remove an existing constraint.
TYPE String Defines a property type.
COLLATE String Sets collate to one of the defined comparison strategies. By default, it is set to case-sensitive (cs). You can also set it to case-insensitive (ci).
READONLY Boolean Defines whether the property value is immutable. That is, if it is possible to change it after the first assignment. Use with DEFAULT to have immutable values on creation.
CUSTOM String Defines custom properties. The syntax for custom properties is <custom-name> = <custom-value>, such as stereotype = icon.
DEFAULT Defines the default value or function. Feature introduced in version 2.1, (see the section above for examples).

When altering NAME or TYPE this command runs a data update that may take some time, depending on the amount of data. Don’t shut the database down during this migration.

To create a property, use the CREATE PROPERTY command, to remove a property the DROP PROPERTY command. For more information on other commands, see Console and SQL commands.