ALTER_PROCEDURE(7pg17)

💖 ALTER PROCEDURE 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the glow-up guide for your stored procedures ✨ this is the ALTER PROCEDURE page from the PostgreSQL 17.11 docs, and we're gonna make it make sense, fr fr 🫶

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

ALTER PROCEDURE — change the definition of a procedure 💅

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

like, here's the whole vibe of what you can type:

ALTER PROCEDURE name [ ( [ [ argmode ] [ argname ] argtype [, ...] ] ) ]
    action [ ... ] [ RESTRICT ]
ALTER PROCEDURE name [ ( [ [ argmode ] [ argname ] argtype [, ...] ] ) ]
    RENAME TO new_name
ALTER PROCEDURE name [ ( [ [ argmode ] [ argname ] argtype [, ...] ] ) ]
    OWNER TO { new_owner | CURRENT_ROLE | CURRENT_USER | SESSION_USER }
ALTER PROCEDURE name [ ( [ [ argmode ] [ argname ] argtype [, ...] ] ) ]
    SET SCHEMA new_schema
ALTER PROCEDURE name [ ( [ [ argmode ] [ argname ] argtype [, ...] ] ) ]
    [ NO ] DEPENDS ON EXTENSION extension_name

and action is literally one of these:

[ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY INVOKER | [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY DEFINER
SET configuration_parameter { TO | = } { value | DEFAULT }
SET configuration_parameter FROM CURRENT
RESET configuration_parameter
RESET ALL

---

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so ALTER PROCEDURE changes the definition of a procedure. that's the whole assignment. 💫

but listen — you must own the procedure to use ALTER PROCEDURE. to change a procedure's schema, you also need CREATE privilege on the new schema. and to alter the owner, you must be able to SET ROLE to the new owning role, and that role must have CREATE privilege on the procedure's schema. (these restrictions are literally just making sure that altering the owner doesn't do anything you couldn't do by dropping and recreating the procedure. but ngl, a superuser can alter ownership of any procedure anyway 👑)

---

🎀 PARAMETERS 🎀

• name — the name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing procedure. if no argument list is specified, the name must be unique in its schema. iykyk.
• argmode — the mode of an argument: IN, OUT, INOUT, or VARIADIC. if omitted, the default is IN.
• argname — the name of an argument. note that ALTER PROCEDURE does not actually pay any attention to argument names, since only the argument data types are used to determine the procedure's identity. so yeah, the name is just vibes 🙈
• argtype — the data type(s) of the procedure's arguments (optionally schema-qualified), if any. see DROP PROCEDURE (DROP_PROCEDURE(7)) for the details of how the procedure is looked up using the argument data type(s).
• new_name — the new name of the procedure. periodt.
• new_owner — the new owner of the procedure. note that if the procedure is marked SECURITY DEFINER, it will subsequently execute as the new owner. iconic behavior honestly.
• new_schema — the new schema for the procedure.
• extension_name — this form marks the procedure as dependent on the extension, or no longer dependent on the extension if NO is specified. a procedure that's marked as dependent on an extension is dropped when the extension is dropped, even if cascade is not specified. a procedure can depend upon multiple extensions, and will be dropped when any one of those extensions is dropped. so like, clingy much? 💀
• [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY INVOKER
• [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY DEFINER — change whether the procedure is a security definer or not. the key word EXTERNAL is ignored for SQL conformance. see CREATE PROCEDURE (CREATE_PROCEDURE(7)) for more information about this capability.
• configuration_parameter
• value — add or change the assignment to be made to a configuration parameter when the procedure is called. if value is DEFAULT or, equivalently, RESET is used, the procedure-local setting is removed, so that the procedure executes with the value present in its environment. use RESET ALL to clear all procedure-local settings. SET FROM CURRENT saves the value of the parameter that is current when ALTER PROCEDURE is executed as the value to be applied when the procedure is entered.

see SET(7) and Chapter 19 for more information about allowed parameter names and values.

• RESTRICT — ignored for conformance with the SQL standard. it's just there to be polite ✨

---

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

to rename the procedure insert_data with two arguments of type integer to insert_record:

ALTER PROCEDURE insert_data(integer, integer) RENAME TO insert_record;

to change the owner of the procedure insert_data with two arguments of type integer to joe:

ALTER PROCEDURE insert_data(integer, integer) OWNER TO joe;

to change the schema of the procedure insert_data with two arguments of type integer to accounting:

ALTER PROCEDURE insert_data(integer, integer) SET SCHEMA accounting;

to mark the procedure insert_data(integer, integer) as being dependent on the extension myext:

ALTER PROCEDURE insert_data(integer, integer) DEPENDS ON EXTENSION myext;

to adjust the search path that is automatically set for a procedure:

ALTER PROCEDURE check_password(text) SET search_path = admin, pg_temp;

to disable automatic setting of search_path for a procedure:

ALTER PROCEDURE check_password(text) RESET search_path;

the procedure will now execute with whatever search path is used by its caller. slay 🎉

---

💜 COMPATIBILITY 💜

this statement is partially compatible with the ALTER PROCEDURE statement in the SQL standard. the standard allows more properties of a procedure to be modified, but does not provide the ability to rename a procedure, make a procedure a security definer, attach configuration parameter values to a procedure, or change the owner, schema, or volatility of a procedure. the standard also requires the RESTRICT key word, which is optional in PostgreSQL. so like, we're doing our own thing here, and honestly? it's giving main character energy 💅

---

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

CREATE PROCEDURE (CREATE_PROCEDURE(7)), DROP PROCEDURE (DROP_PROCEDURE(7)), ALTER FUNCTION (ALTER_FUNCTION(7)), ALTER ROUTINE (ALTER_ROUTINE(7))

---

that's the whole page, bestie. go forth and alter those procedures with confidence 🫶✨

PostgreSQL 17.11 — 2026 — ALTER PROCEDURE(7) 💖