ALTER FUNCTION (external table)

Invocation

This statement can be embedded in an application program or issued interactively. It is an executable statement that can be dynamically prepared.

Authorization

The privileges held by the authorization ID of the statement must include at least one of the following:

• For the function identified in the statement:
  • The ALTER privilege for the function, and
  • The USAGE privilege on the schema containing the function.
• Database administrator authority

If a different external program is specified, the privileges held by the authorization ID of the statement must also include the same privileges required to create a new external table function. For more information, see CREATE FUNCTION (external table).

For information about the system authorities corresponding to SQL privileges, see Corresponding System Authorities When Checking Privileges to a Function or Procedure, Corresponding System Authorities When Checking Privileges to a Table or View, and Corresponding System Authorities When Checking Privileges to a Distinct Type.

Description

FUNCTION or SPECIFIC FUNCTION

Identifies the function to alter. function-name must identify an external table function that exists at the current server. It cannot identify a built-in function, a sourced function, or an SQL function. An external scalar function cannot be altered to be an external table function.

The specified function is altered. The owner of the function is preserved. If the external program or service program exists at the time the function is altered, all privileges on the function are preserved.

FUNCTION function-name

Identifies the function by its name. The function-name must identify exactly one function. The function may have any number of parameters defined for it. If there is more than one function of the specified name in the specified or implicit schema, an error is returned.

FUNCTION function-name (parameter-type,...)

Identifies the function by its function signature, which uniquely identifies the function. The function-name (parameter-type,...) must identify a function with the specified function signature. The specified parameters must match the data types in the corresponding position that were specified when the function was created. The number of data types, and the logical concatenation of the data types is used to identify the specific function instance which is being altered. Synonyms for data types are considered a match. Parameters that have defaults must be included in this signature.

If function-name() is specified, the function identified must have zero parameters.

function-name

Identifies the name of the function.

(parameter-type,...)

Identifies the parameters of the function.

If an unqualified distinct type name is specified, the database manager searches the SQL path to resolve the schema name for the distinct type.

For data types that have a length, precision, or scale attribute, use one of the following:

• Empty parenthesis indicates that the database manager ignores the attribute when determining whether the data types match. For example, DEC() will be considered a match for a parameter of a function defined with a data type of DEC(7,2). However, FLOAT cannot be specified with empty parenthesis because its precision value indicates a specific data type (REAL or DOUBLE).
• If a specific value for a length, precision, or scale attribute is specified, the value must exactly match the value that was specified (implicitly or explicitly) in the CREATE FUNCTION statement. If the data type is FLOAT, the precision does not have to exactly match the value that was specified because matching is based on the data type (REAL or DOUBLE).
• If length, precision, or scale is not explicitly specified, and empty parentheses are not specified, the default attributes of the data type are implied. The implicit length must exactly match the value that was specified (implicitly or explicitly) in the CREATE FUNCTION statement.

Specifying the FOR DATA clause or CCSID clause is optional. Omission of either clause indicates that the database manager ignores the attribute when determining whether the data types match. If either clause is specified, it must match the value that was implicitly or explicitly specified in the CREATE FUNCTION statement.

AS LOCATOR

Specifies that the function is defined to receive a locator for this parameter. If AS LOCATOR is specified, the data type must be a LOB or XML or a distinct type based on a LOB or XML.

SPECIFIC FUNCTION specific-name

Identifies the function by its specific name. The specific-name must identify a specific function that exists at the current server.

ALTER option-list

Indicates that one or more of the options of the function are to be altered. If an option is not specified, the value from the existing function definition is used. See CREATE FUNCTION (external table) for a description of each option.

RESTRICT

Indicates that the function will not be altered if it is referenced by any view, function, procedure, or materialized query table.

Notes

General considerations for defining or replacing functions: See CREATE FUNCTION (external table) for general information about defining a function. ALTER FUNCTION (external table) allows individual attributes to be altered while preserving the privileges on the function.