Trying to modify a constraint in PostgreSQL

Question

I have checked the documentation provided by Oracle and found a way to modify a constraint without dropping the table. Problem is, it errors out at modify as it does not recogn

Answer 1

ALTER CONSTRAINT would require knowing of foreign key name, which is not always convenient.

Here is function, where you need to know only table and column names. Usage:

select replace_foreign_key('user_rates_posts', 'post_id', 'ON DELETE CASCADE');

Function:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION 
    replace_foreign_key(f_table VARCHAR, f_column VARCHAR, new_options VARCHAR) 
RETURNS VARCHAR
AS $$
DECLARE constraint_name varchar;
DECLARE reftable varchar;
DECLARE refcolumn varchar;
BEGIN

SELECT tc.constraint_name, ccu.table_name AS foreign_table_name, ccu.column_name AS foreign_column_name 
FROM 
    information_schema.table_constraints AS tc 
    JOIN information_schema.key_column_usage AS kcu
      ON tc.constraint_name = kcu.constraint_name
    JOIN information_schema.constraint_column_usage AS ccu
      ON ccu.constraint_name = tc.constraint_name
WHERE constraint_type = 'FOREIGN KEY' 
   AND tc.table_name= f_table AND kcu.column_name= f_column
INTO constraint_name, reftable, refcolumn;

EXECUTE 'alter table ' || f_table || ' drop constraint ' || constraint_name || 
', ADD CONSTRAINT ' || constraint_name || ' FOREIGN KEY (' || f_column || ') ' ||
' REFERENCES ' || reftable || '(' || refcolumn || ') ' || new_options || ';';

RETURN 'Constraint replaced: ' || constraint_name || ' (' || f_table || '.' || f_column ||
 ' -> ' || reftable || '.' || refcolumn || '); New options: ' || new_options;

END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

Be aware: this function won't copy attributes of initial foreign key. It only takes foreign table name / column name, drops current key and replaces with new one.