As of version 9.4, you can use the currentSchema parameter in your connection string.

For example:

jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/mydatabase?currentSchema=myschema

If it is possible in your environment, you could also set the user's default schema to your desired schema:

ALTER USER user_name SET search_path to 'schema'

I don't believe there is a way to specify the schema in the connection string. It appears you have to execute

set search_path to 'schema'

after the connection is made to specify the schema.

DataSource – setCurrentSchema

When instantiating a DataSource implementation, look for a method to set the current/default schema.

For example, on the PGSimpleDataSource class call setCurrentSchema.

org.postgresql.ds.PGSimpleDataSource dataSource = new org.postgresql.ds.PGSimpleDataSource ( );
dataSource.setServerName ( "localhost" );
dataSource.setDatabaseName ( "your_db_here_" );
dataSource.setPortNumber ( 5432 );
dataSource.setUser ( "postgres" );
dataSource.setPassword ( "your_password_here" );
dataSource.setCurrentSchema ( "your_schema_name_here_" );  // <----------

If you leave the schema unspecified, Postgres defaults to a schema named public within the database. See the manual, section 5.9.2 The Public Schema. To quote hat manual:

In the previous sections we created tables without specifying any schema names. By default such tables (and other objects) are automatically put into a schema named “public”. Every new database contains such a schema.

I have tried: currentSchema, searchpath, search_path in the key-value section and nothing works for me. I have found work around with the "options" key word:

postgresql://host:port/dbname?options=-c%20search_path%3Dschema_name

I submitted an updated version of a patch to the PostgreSQL JDBC driver to enable this a few years back. You'll have to build the PostreSQL JDBC driver from source (after adding in the patch) to use it:

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-jdbc/2008-07/msg00012.php

http://jdbc.postgresql.org/

In Go with "sql.DB" (note the search_path with underscore):

postgres://user:password@host/dbname?sslmode=disable&search_path=schema

Don't forget SET SCHEMA 'myschema' which you could use in a separate Statement

SET SCHEMA 'value' is an alias for SET search_path TO value. Only one schema can be specified using this syntax.

And since 9.4 and possibly earlier versions on the JDBC driver, there is support for the setSchema(String schemaName) method.

According to the official Postgresql JDBC doc, there are at least two connection options available for use on the JDBC URL to configure the schema to use.

The most straight forward option is using the currentSchema property, as shown in Steve's answer.

You also have the possibility of providing a URL encoded string of of options to be used by the CLI to configure the connection. The most straight forward way of configuring this is using the Java API, as that will take care of all URL encoding, such as swapping spaces for "%20", "=" for "%3D", etc.

Properties props = new Properties();
props.setProperty("options", "-c search_path=test,public,pg_catalog -c statement_timeout=90000");
Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection(url, props);

This will result in the query parameter "options" have the value c+search_path%3Dtest%2Cpublic%2Cpg_catalog+-c+statement_timeout%3D90000. Not exactly nice to hand code, but you can do it :) If you only require to set the schema, you can get away with just appending ?options=-c%20search_path= to the URL:

jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/postgres?options=-c%20search_path=test,public,pg_catalog

Additionally, the JDBC API provides a setter for the current schema on Datasource, which is what Hikari is using when setting schema in Spring Boot using the spring.datasource.hikari.schema property.