Vol. I · A Postgres HandbookTwelve chapters · · 756 queries

The Query & the Schema

A reading-room reference for writing PostgreSQL by hand — selects to window functions, with the schema in plain view.

IntermediateBasic SELECT

Add a DEFAULT value to a column

SQL

ALTER TABLE employees 
ALTER COLUMN status SET DEFAULT 'active';

Tested against PostgreSQL 16

Note

“Only applies to new rows inserted without specifying this column. Existing rows are unaffected.