ORA-00997: Annoying LONG/LONG RAW columns when alter table .. move tablespace

If you get an "ORA-00997: illegal use of LONG datatype" error, metalink (note 165901.1) advises you to

1. Export the table.
2. Recreate the table in the new tablespace.
3. Import the table.

This is annoying, because you have
- a table outage (manual read only table lock needed)

• more admin work (more steps than just "alter table .. move tablespace ..")

Oracle allows you to ".. move tablespace" for any other object
- tables

• table partitions
• indexes
• index partitions
• index organized tables
• lob segments
• ...

Does somebody know a more comfortable method to move tables with LONG columns?
- Will this feature be implemented by Oracle in the future?

• LONG column type is out-dated according to Oracle. Can you convert LONG and LONG RAW to BLOB,CLOB,... without the need of testing. Is it 100% interoperable?

Thanx for your discussion Received on Sun Sep 17 2006 - 20:19:20 CDT