Oracle Help: Changing Column Names

Hello,

        I'm currently looking for a method to change column names in a table without effecting the data already in the table. I'm currently using Oracle version 7 and I'm stumped.

        I've tried using Alter Table, but altering a column name does not appear to be an option (changing datatypes, constraints, etc. yes, column names no).

        I've also tried duplicating the table, copying over the data and then droping the original table. Unfortunately, I can not drop the original table since I have several tables who have foreign keys which originate in the table I'm currrently trying to drop.

        I would appreciate any help I can get on how to deal with this vexing problem. :-)

					John Messina
					jmessi1_at_cs.umbc.edu