COMMENT

Defines or changes the comment of an object.

Synopsis

COMMENT ON
{ ACCESS METHOD <object_name> |
  AGGREGATE <aggregate_name> (<aggregate_signature>) |
  CAST (<source_type> AS <target_type>) |
  COLLATION <object_name>
  COLUMN <relation_name>.<column_name> |
  CONSTRAINT <constraint_name> ON <table_name> |
  CONSTRAINT <constraint_name> ON DOMAIN <domain_name> |
  CONVERSION <object_name> |
  DATABASE <object_name> |
  DOMAIN <object_name> |
  EVENT TRIGGER <object_name> |
  EXTENSION <object_name> |
  FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER <object_name> |
  FOREIGN TABLE <object_name> |
  FUNCTION <function_name> [([[<argmode>] [<argname>] <argtype> [, ...]])] |
  INDEX <object_name> |
  MATERIALIZED VIEW <object_name> |
  OPERATOR <operator_name> (<left_type>, <right_type>) |
  OPERATOR CLASS <object_name> USING <index_method> |
  OPERATOR FAMILY <object_name> USING <index_method> |
  POLICY <policy_name> ON <table_name> |
  [PROCEDURAL] LANGUAGE <object_name> |
  PROCEDURE <procedure_name> [([[<argmode>] [<argname>] <argtype> [, ...]])] |
  RESOURCE GROUP <object_name> |
  RESOURCE QUEUE <object_name> |
  ROLE <object_name |
  ROUTINE <routine_name> [([[<argmode>] [<argname>] <argtype> [, ...]])] |
  RULE <rule_name> ON <table_name> |
  SCHEMA <object_name> |
  SEQUENCE <object_name> |
  SERVER <object_name> |
  STATISTICS <object_name> |
  TABLE <object_name> |
  TABLESPACE <object_name> |
  TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION <object_name> |
  TEXT SEARCH DICTIONARY <object_name> |
  TEXT SEARCH PARSER <object_name> |
  TEXT SEARCH TEMPLATE <object_name> |
  TRANSFORM FOR <type_name> LANGUAGE <lang_name> |
  TRIGGER <trigger_name> ON <table_name> |
  TYPE <object_name> |
  VIEW <object_name>
} IS { <string_literal> | NULL }

where <aggregate_signature> is:

* |
[ <argmode> ] [ <argname> ] <argtype> [ , ... ] |
[ [ <argmode> ] [ <argname> ] <argtype> [ , ... ] ] ORDER BY [ <argmode> ] [ <argname> ] <argtype> [ , ... ]

Description

COMMENT stores a comment about a database object. Only one comment string is stored for each object, so to modify a comment, issue a new COMMENT command for the same object. To remove a comment, specify NULL in place of the text string. Comments are automatically dropped when the object is dropped.

Greenplum Database acquires a SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE lock on the object to be commented.

For most kinds of object, only the object's owner can set the comment. Roles don't have owners, so the rule for COMMENT ON ROLE is that you must be superuser to comment on a superuser role, or have the CREATEROLE privilege to comment on non-superuser roles. Likewise, access methods don't have owners either; you must be superuser to comment on an access method. Of course, a superuser can comment on anything.

You can view comments using the psql meta-commands \dd, \d+, and \l+. Other user interfaces to retrieve comments can be built atop the same built-in functions that psql uses, namely obj_description(), col_description(), and shobj_description().

Parameters

object_name
relation_name.column_name
aggregate_name
constraint_name
function_name
operator_name
policy_name
procedure_name
routine_name
rule_name
trigger_name: The name of the object to be commented. Names of tables, aggregates, collations, conversions, domains, foreign tables, functions, indexes, operators, operator classes, operator families, procedures, routines, sequences, statistics, text search objects, types, views, and materialized views can be schema-qualified. When commenting on a column, relation_name must refer to a table, view, materialized view, composite type, or foreign table.

Note
Greenplum Database does not support triggers.
table_name
domain_name: When creating a comment on a constraint, a trigger, a rule, or a policy, these parameters specify the name of the table or domain on which that object is defined.
source_type: The name of the source data type of the cast.
target_type: The name of the target data type of the cast.
argmode: The mode of a function or aggregate argument: either IN, OUT, INOUT, or VARIADIC. If omitted, the default is IN. Note that COMMENT does not actually pay any attention to OUT arguments, since only the input arguments are needed to determine the function's identity. It is sufficient to list the IN, INOUT, and VARIADIC arguments.
argname: The name of a function, procedure, or aggregate argument. Note that COMMENT does not actually pay any attention to argument names, since only the argument data types are needed to determine the function's identity.
argtype: The data type of a function, procedure, or aggregate argument.
left_type
right_type: The data type(s) of the operator's arguments (optionally schema-qualified). Specify NONE for the missing argument of a prefix or postfix operator.
PROCEDURAL: Greenplum Database ignores this noise word.
type_name: The name of the data type of the transform.
lang_name: The name of the language of the transform.
string_literal: The new comment contents, written as a string literal.
NULL: Specify NULL to drop the comment.

Notes

There is presently no security mechanism for viewing comments: any user connected to a database can see all of the comments for objects in that database. For shared objects such as databases, roles, and tablespaces, comments are stored globally so any user connected to any database in the cluster can see all the comments for shared objects.

Caution
Do not put security-critical information in comments.

Examples

Attach a comment to the table mytable:

COMMENT ON TABLE mytable IS 'This is my table.';

Remove it again:

COMMENT ON TABLE mytable IS NULL;

More examples:

COMMENT ON ACCESS METHOD gin IS 'GIN index access method';
COMMENT ON AGGREGATE my_aggregate (double precision) IS 'Computes sample variance';
COMMENT ON CAST (text AS int4) IS 'Allow casts from text to int4';
COMMENT ON COLLATION "fr_CA" IS 'Canadian French';
COMMENT ON COLUMN my_table.my_column IS 'Employee ID number';
COMMENT ON CONVERSION my_conv IS 'Conversion to UTF8';
COMMENT ON CONSTRAINT bar_col_cons ON bar IS 'Constrains column col';
COMMENT ON CONSTRAINT dom_col_constr ON DOMAIN dom IS 'Constrains col of domain';
COMMENT ON DATABASE my_database IS 'Development Database';
COMMENT ON DOMAIN my_domain IS 'Email Address Domain';
COMMENT ON EVENT TRIGGER cancel_ddl IS 'Cancels all DLL commands';
COMMENT ON EXTENSION hstore IS 'implements the hstore data type';
COMMENT ON FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER mywrapper IS 'my foreign data wrapper';
COMMENT ON FOREIGN TABLE my_foreign_table IS 'Employee Information in other database';
COMMENT ON FUNCTION my_function (timestamp) IS 'Returns Roman Numeral';
COMMENT ON INDEX my_index IS 'Enforces uniqueness on employee ID';
COMMENT ON LANGUAGE plpython IS 'Python support for stored procedures';
COMMENT ON MATERIALIZED VIEW my_matview IS 'Summary of order history';
COMMENT ON OPERATOR ^ (text, text) IS 'Performs intersection of two texts';
COMMENT ON OPERATOR - (NONE, integer) IS 'Unary minus';
COMMENT ON OPERATOR CLASS int4_ops USING btree IS '4 byte integer operators for btrees';
COMMENT ON OPERATOR FAMILY integer_ops USING btree IS 'all integer operators for btrees';
COMMENT ON POLICY my_policy ON mytable IS 'Filter rows by users';
COMMENT ON PROCEDURE my_proc (integer, integer) IS 'Runs a report';
COMMENT ON ROLE my_role IS 'Administration group for finance tables';
COMMENT ON ROUTINE my_routine (integer, integer) IS 'Runs a routine (which is a function or procedure)';
COMMENT ON RULE my_rule ON my_table IS 'Logs updates of employee records';
COMMENT ON SCHEMA my_schema IS 'Departmental data';
COMMENT ON SEQUENCE my_sequence IS 'Used to generate primary keys';
COMMENT ON SERVER myserver IS 'my foreign server';
COMMENT ON STATISTICS my_statistics IS 'Improves planner row estimations';
COMMENT ON TABLE my_schema.my_table IS 'Employee Information';
COMMENT ON TABLESPACE my_tablespace IS 'Tablespace for indexes';
COMMENT ON TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION my_config IS 'Special word filtering';
COMMENT ON TEXT SEARCH DICTIONARY swedish IS 'Snowball stemmer for Swedish language';
COMMENT ON TEXT SEARCH PARSER my_parser IS 'Splits text into words';
COMMENT ON TEXT SEARCH TEMPLATE snowball IS 'Snowball stemmer';
COMMENT ON TRANSFORM FOR hstore LANGUAGE plpythonu IS 'Transform between hstore and Python dict';
COMMENT ON TRIGGER my_trigger ON my_table IS 'Used for RI';
COMMENT ON TYPE complex IS 'Complex number data type';
COMMENT ON VIEW my_view IS 'View of departmental costs';

Compatibility

There is no COMMENT command in the SQL standard.

Parent topic: SQL Commands