# How to Rename a Schema in PostgreSQL

> How to Rename a Schema in PostgreSQL: educational article from Command Prompt

PostgreSQL offers a bundle of statements to work with the schemas. These statements may include “ **CREATE** ”, “ **DROP** ”, and “ **ALTER** ”. The “ **ALTER SCHEMA** ” statement is used to modify the schema’s definition, such as altering the schema’s owner, renaming a schema, and so on.

The objective of this post is to explain all the possible methods to rename a schema in PostgreSQL. In this write-up, we will demonstrate how to rename a schema in Postgres using the following methods:

  * Method 1: How to Rename a Schema Using SQL Shell?
  * Method 2: How to Rename a Schema Using pgAdmin?



Let's start with the first method.

 **Method 1: How to Rename a Schema Using SQL Shell?**

The SQL Shell supports the command line interface on which the user can run and execute the statements. For instance, the “ **ALTER SCHEMA** ” statement can be used with the RENAME TO clause to rename a particular schema in PostgreSQL:
    
    
    ALTER SCHEMA schema_name 
    RENAME TO new_name;

In the above syntax, “ **schema_name** ” identifies the name of the existing schema in the database. While the “ **new_name** ” refers to the altered/modified name of the schema.

 **Step #1: List Schemas**

Firstly, open the SQL Shell, provide the required details and execute the “ **\dn** ” command to see the list of available schemas:
    
    
    \dn;

The output shows that there are three schemas in the “postgres” database.

 **Step #2: Rename Schema**

Suppose we want to rename the “employee_info” schema from emp_info to employee_details. To do that, we will execute the “ **ALTER SCHEMA** ” statement with the collaboration of the “ **RENAME TO** ” clause as follows:
    
    
    ALTER SCHEMA employee_info 
    RENAME TO employee_details;

The output indicates that the employee_info schema has been altered successfully.

 **Step #3: Verify Schema**

Let’s execute the “\dn” command one more time to verify that if the selected schema has been renamed or not:
    
    
    \dn;

The output proves that the employee_info schema has been renamed to employee_details.

 **Method 2: How to Rename a Schema Using pgAdmin?**

You can execute the same ALTER SCHEMA command with the collaboration of RENAME TO statement in the pgAdmin’s query tool to rename a particular schema. To open the Query Tool, right click on the targeted schema and choose the “ **Query Tool** ” option from the dropdown list:

Clinking on the Query Tool will open the desired tool where you can execute any query of your choice.

 **Step #2: Rename Schema**

Let’s execute the “ **ALTER SCHEMA** ” statement with the help of **“RENAME TO”** statement to rename the **“example”** schema to **“exp_schema”** :
    
    
    ALTER SCHEMA example
    RENAME TO exp_schema;

The output shows that the selected schema has been altered successfully.

 **Step #3: Verify Schema**

On refreshing the Schemas tab, the users can verify that a schema named “ **exp_schema** ” is located on the left side of the window:

The output verifies that the example schema has been renamed to exp_schema. This is how you can rename a particular schema through SQL SHELL or pgAdmin.

 **Conclusion**

In PostgreSQL, the **“ALTER SCHEMA”** statement is used with the collaboration of the **“RENAME TO”** statement to rename a particular schema. This post explained how to rename a particular schema using SQL SHELL(psql) or pgAdmin.

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