How to add a sort key to an existing table in AWS Redshift

Question

In AWS Redshift, I want to add a sort key to a table that is already created. Is there any command which can add a column and use it as sort key?

Answer 1

UPDATE:

Amazon Redshift now enables users to add and change sort keys of existing Redshift tables without having to re-create the table. The new capability simplifies user experience in maintaining the optimal sort order in Redshift to achieve high performance as their query patterns evolve and do it without interrupting the access to the tables.

source: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/11/amazon-redshift-supports-changing-table-sort-keys-dynamically/

At the moment I think its not possible (hopefully that will change in the future). In the past when I ran into this kind of situation I created a new table and copied the data from the old one into it.

from http://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/dg/r_ALTER_TABLE.html:

ADD [ COLUMN ] column_name Adds a column with the specified name to the table. You can add only one column in each ALTER TABLE statement.

You cannot add a column that is the distribution key (DISTKEY) or a sort key (SORTKEY) of the table.

You cannot use an ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN command to modify the following table and column attributes:

UNIQUE

PRIMARY KEY

REFERENCES (foreign key)

IDENTITY

The maximum column name length is 127 characters; longer names are truncated to 127 characters. The maximum number of columns you can define in a single table is 1,600.