Re: An easy question about creating a primary key

Ligia,

> I want to create a primary key constraint on an existing table. The
> documentation says I can't . Please confirm. If this is true... How
> can I
> rename the existing table so I can create the new one and copy the
> data?

FYI, this question is more appropriate for the NOVICE list.

You would use the same method that you use to drop and recreate the
table for other reasons:

CREATE TABLE tablea_temp AS
SELECT * FROM tablea;

DROP tablea;

CREATE tablea (
primary_key SERIAL ...
<snip>
);

INSERT INTO tablea (column list)
SELECT (column list) FROM tablea_temp;

And don't forget to re-build your indexes!

-Josh Berkus

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