<a id="flink-sql-alter-connection"></a>

# ALTER CONNECTION Statement in Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink

Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink® supports creating secure connections to external services and
data sources. You can use these connections in your Flink statements. Use the
ALTER CONNECTION statement to change the API key or credentials of an
existing connection.

## Syntax

```sql
ALTER CONNECTION [IF EXISTS] [catalog_name.][db_name.]connection_name
SET (key1=val1[, key2=val2]...)
```

## Description

Change the API key or credentials of a connection.

Secrets are extracted to the secret store and aren’t displayed in subsequent
[DESCRIBE CONNECTION](describe.md#flink-sql-describe) statements, the
Flink SQL shell, or the Confluent Cloud Console.

Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink makes a best-effort attempt to redact sensitive values from the
CREATE CONNECTION and ALTER CONNECTION statements by masking the values for
the known sensitive keys. In Confluent Cloud Console, the sensitive values are
redacted in the Flink SQL workspace if you navigate away from the workspace
and return, or if you reload the page in the browser. Alternatively, you can
use the Confluent CLI commands to create and manage connections.

In addition, if syntax in the CREATE CONNECTION statement is incorrect,
Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink might not detect the secrets. For example, if you type
`CREATE CONNECTION my_conn WITH ('ap-key' = 'x')`, Flink doesn’t redact the
`x`, because `api-key` is misspelled.

## Examples

```sql
-- Update the API key for a connection.
ALTER CONNECTION `conn-one` SET ('api-key' = '<new-api-key>');

-- Update the credentials for a connection.
ALTER CONNECTION `my-couchbase-conn` SET (
  'username' = '<user-name>',
  'password' = '<new-password>'
);
```

## Related content

- [CREATE CONNECTION](create-connection.md#flink-sql-create-connection)
- [DESCRIBE CONNECTION](describe.md#flink-sql-describe)
- [DROP CONNECTION](drop-connection.md#flink-sql-drop-connection)
- [SHOW CONNECTIONS](show.md#flink-sql-show-connections)

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