pgAdmin 4 clients is showing “Please specify converging index name” error is coming when we try to save table properties in PostgreSQL. Here is the solution to this type of error. The solution is given below with a problem statement.
Problem
In PostgreSQL client pgAdmin 4, when we try to edit foreign key constraints by clicking table properties to edit already created table columns and their constraints, this error will occur.
One more scenario is when we try to add one more foreign for the existing database table from pgAdmin.
For above both scenarios, “Please specify covering index name” error will come when we try to save after making changes. Basically, this issue is observed in pgAdmin 4 of PostgresSQL client. The exact version of pgAdmin is pgAdmin 4.23.
Solution
To solve this covering index name issue, as of today, we need to write SQL queries instead of User Interface.
To add Foreign Key constraints for an existing table or to edit Foreign Key constraints for an existing table we need to alter the table with SQL query instead of clicking on properties of the table and trying to edit constraints from the pgAdmin user interface.
One more solution is to create a table one more time deleting the existing table. If you are lazy to write queries, simply delete the existing table and create one more time with proper input where there should be no reason to edit the existing foreign keys or to add more foreign keys.
Example:
In the below image, ApplyLinkJobRelation is a table with more than one foreign key column. One foreign key from the JobDetail table has already been referenced and saved. When trying to edit or add one more foreign key to this table, the error “Please specify covering index name”.
To solve this error, we supposed to fix by writing queries manually. In the below screenshot for existing table query is generated.
For create a statement we can add the required foreign keys as shown the below screenshot.
Conclusion
As of pgAdmin 4.23 version of PostgreSQL “Please specify covering index name” error is coming, pgAdmin team may fix this issue in a future version of pgAdmin. But as of pgAdmin 4.23 version, this issue can be avoided using SQL query or re-creating table with proper inputs.