PostgreSQL - how to rename CamelCase column?

Question

When I tried to rename a CamelCase column like this:

ALTER TABLE mytable RENAME COLUMN camelCaseColumn TO camel_case_column;

I get the following error:

ERROR: column "camelcasecolumn" does not exist

Surrounding the CamelCase column name with single quotes like this:

ALTER TABLE mytable RENAME COLUMN 'camelCaseColumn' TO camel_case_column;

gives me a syntax error.

Is there any way I can rename the column? Or do I have to create a new table and transfer the data?

The database is running on Ubuntu, and I am using Mac OS X to ssh into the server where the database is running on to issue the ALTER TABLE commands. I know that Mac OS X is case insensitive, so could this be part of the problem?

Thanks!

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 10 '14 at 03:16

5

Turns out that using double quotes works:

ALTER TABLE mytable RENAME COLUMN "camelCaseColumn" TO camel_case_column;

answered Feb 10 '14 at 03:16

yanhan

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Yes, PostgreSQL case-folds unquoted identifiers, per the SQL spec requirements. See the documentation: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql-syntax-lexical.html – Craig Ringer Feb 10 '14 at 03:23

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 27 '18 at 18:13

0

If you wish to migrate all of the column names in the database to the PostgreSQL convention, check out my post here

Moving to PostgreSQL convention

answered Mar 27 '18 at 18:13

Evan Carroll

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PostgreSQL - how to rename CamelCase column?

2 Answers2