How to add a column default?

I created a Postgres DB which contains 5 tables. Then I realized that the column student.student_id lacks a column default to generate an UUID:

CREATE TABLE student (
     student_id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
     first_name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
     last_name varchar(100) NOT NULL,
     date_of_birth Date NOT NULL
)

​x
 
CREATE TABLE student (     student_id UUID PRIMARY KEY,     first_name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,     last_name varchar(100) NOT NULL,     date_of_birth Date NOT NULL)​

Knowing that some tables are linked to the student table, how can I add to the function as column default for student_id so that the result will be:

     student_id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT uuid_generate_v4()

 
     student_id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT uuid_generate_v4()​

Answer

Use ALTER TABLE:

ALTER TABLE student
ALTER COLUMN student_id SET DEFAULT uuid_generate_v4();

 
ALTER TABLE studentALTER COLUMN student_id SET DEFAULT uuid_generate_v4();​

Column defaults do not conflict with FOREIGN KEY references.

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Answer