Supported Versions: Current (16) / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12
Development Versions: devel
Unsupported versions: 11 / 10 / 9.6 / 9.5 / 9.4 / 9.3 / 9.2 / 9.1 / 9.0 / 8.4 / 8.3 / 8.2 / 8.1 / 8.0 / 7.4 / 7.3 / 7.2 / 7.1
This documentation is for an unsupported version of PostgreSQL.
You may want to view the same page for the current version, or one of the other supported versions listed above instead.

COMMENT

Name

COMMENT -- define or change the comment of an object

Synopsis

COMMENT ON
{
  TABLE object_name |
  COLUMN table_name.column_name |
  AGGREGATE agg_name (agg_type) |
  CONSTRAINT constraint_name ON table_name |
  DATABASE object_name |
  DOMAIN object_name |
  FUNCTION func_name (arg1_type, arg2_type, ...) |
  INDEX object_name |
  OPERATOR op (leftoperand_type, rightoperand_type) |
  RULE rule_name ON table_name |
  SCHEMA object_name |
  SEQUENCE object_name |
  TRIGGER trigger_name ON table_name |
  TYPE object_name |
  VIEW object_name
} IS 'text'

Description

COMMENT stores a comment about a database object. Comments can be easily retrieved with the psql 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 and col_description.

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

Parameters

object_name
table_name.column_name
aggname
constraint_name
func_name
op
rule_name
trigger_name

The name of the object to be be commented. Names of tables, aggregates, domains, functions, indexes, operators, sequences, types, and views may be schema-qualified.

text

The new comment.

Notes

There is presently no security mechanism for comments: any user connected to a database can see all the comments for objects in that database (although only superusers can change comments for objects that they don't own). Therefore, don't 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;

Some more examples:

COMMENT ON AGGREGATE my_aggregate (double precision) IS 'Computes sample variance';
COMMENT ON COLUMN my_table.my_column IS 'Employee ID number';
COMMENT ON DATABASE my_database IS 'Development Database';
COMMENT ON DOMAIN my_domain IS 'Email Address Domain';
COMMENT ON FUNCTION my_function (timestamp) IS 'Returns Roman Numeral';
COMMENT ON INDEX my_index IS 'Enforces uniqueness on employee ID';
COMMENT ON OPERATOR ^ (text, text) IS 'Performs intersection of two texts';
COMMENT ON OPERATOR ^ (NONE, text) IS 'This is a prefix operator on text';
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 TABLE my_schema.my_table IS 'Employee Information';
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.