How to rename a hive table without changing location?

Yeah we can do that. You just need to follow below three commands in sequence.

1. Lets say you have a external table test_1 in hive. And you want to rename it test_2 which should point test_2 location not test_1. Then you need to convert this table into Managed table using below command.
   test_1 -> pointing to test_1 location

   ALTER TABLE db_name.test_1 SET TBLPROPERTIES('EXTERNAL'='FALSE');
   

2. Rename the table name.

   ALTER TABLE db_name.test_1 RENAME TO db_name.test_2;
   

3. Again convert the managed table after renaming to external table.

   ALTER TABLE db_name.test_2 SET TBLPROPERTIES('EXTERNAL'='TRUE');
   

db_name.test_2 table will point the test_2 location. If we do it without making the managed table it will point the test_1 location.