How does Oracle allocate new extent?

hey guys,

        I have a question of how oracle allocates new extent.

        In my case, I have 60 MB left in datafile cms01 where includes table EPISODES. The next extent for table EPISODES is 10 MB, so it shouldn't be a problem, but in reality the oracle engine couldn't allocate the 10 MB from the 60 MB in the datafile cms01 and produced an oracle error in the alert log.

        I found out that Oracle needs continuous space for the extent. My question is how can I tell if there is fragmentation by looking dba_free_space? Or, do I need to look at other views as well?

thanks in advance.

Michael
WindyCloud
7k_at_gamestats.com

Realms of the Kingdoms, http://7k.gamestats.com Received on Tue Aug 10 1999 - 07:10:20 CDT