Allows you to change the role name or add a comment to a role.

1  –  Environment

    You can use the ALTER ROLE statement:

    o  In interactive SQL

    o  Embedded in host language programs to be precompiled

    o  As part of a procedure in an SQL module

    o  In dynamic SQL as a statement to be dynamically executed

2  –  Format

  ALTER ROLE ----> <role-name> --+----------------------+------>
                                 +--> alter-role-opts --+

  alter-role-opts =

  --+--> IDENTIFIED EXTERNALLY -------------+---->
    +--> NOT IDENTIFIED --------------------+
    +--> RENAME TO <new-role-name> ---------+
    +--> COMMENT IS --+--> 'string' --+-----+
                      +--<--- / ------+

3  –  Arguments

3.1  –  COMMENT_IS

    Adds a comment about the role. SQL displays the text of the
    comment when it executes a SHOW ROLES statement. Enclose the
    comment in single quotation marks ( ') and separate multiple
    lines in a comment with a slash mark (/).

3.2  –  IDENTIFIED_EXTERNALLY

    Specifies whether SQL should inherit roles from the operating
    system. If you specify one of these clauses, you must specify
    the same clause as was specified when the role was created.
    You cannot use the ALTER ROLE statement to change roles from
    IDENTIFIED EXTERNALLY to NOT IDENTIFIED or from NOT IDENTIFIED to
    IDENTIFIED EXTERNALLY.

    The IDENTIFIED EXERNALLY clause indicates that SQL inherits the
    roles defined by the facilities of the operating system, such as
    OpenVMS rights identifiers.

    The NOT IDENTIFIED clause indicates that SQL does not inherit any
    roles defined by the facilities of the operating system; instead,
    the role is private to the database.

3.3  –  NOT_IDENTIFIED

    Specifies whether SQL should inherit roles from the operating
    system. If you specify one of these clauses, you must specify
    the same clause as was specified when the role was created.
    You cannot use the ALTER ROLE statement to change roles from
    IDENTIFIED EXTERNALLY to NOT IDENTIFIED or from NOT IDENTIFIED to
    IDENTIFIED EXTERNALLY.

    The IDENTIFIED EXERNALLY clause indicates that SQL inherits the
    roles defined by the facilities of the operating system, such as
    OpenVMS rights identifiers.

    The NOT IDENTIFIED clause indicates that SQL does not inherit any
    roles defined by the facilities of the operating system; instead,
    the role is private to the database. This is the default.

3.4  –  RENAME_TO

    Changes an existing role name to a new role name without
    changing the privileges granted to the role. You might change
    the name of a role that corresponds to a department name when the
    department is renamed. For example, if the personnel department
    is renamed human resources, you might change the role used by
    that department from PERSONNEL to HUMAN_RESOURCES. The new role
    name must not already exist in the database. The old role name is
    removed from the database when the transaction is committed. The
    old role name can be re-created and reused, if desired. If the
    new role name is identified externally, then it must exist as an
    operating system group or rights identifier.

    See the RENAME statement for further discussion.

3.5  –  role-name

    The name of an existing role (such as one created with the CREATE
    ROLE statement).

4  –  Example

    Example 1: Renaming a Role

    SQL> -- Change the name of the role from WRITER to DOCUMENTATION.
    SQL> -- Any privileges granted to the role WRITER are transferred to the role
    SQL> -- DOCUMENTATION. The role WRITER is deleted from the database.
    SQL> ALTER ROLE WRITER
    cont> RENAME TO DOCUMENTATION;
    SQL> SHOW ROLES;
    Roles in database with filename mf_personnel.rdb
         DOCUMENTATION