Reducing the number of table extents

I have a table that has one 2GB extent and 55 100MB extents. I would like to combine all of this into one 7GB extent or no more than four smaller extents. Since my OS only allows for files <= 2GB, I have many 2GB datafiles that comprise the tablespace that this table resides on. I have found in the past that I cannot create an extent larger than a datafile, so I believe I will be unable to create just one 7GB extent (maybe this is a bug, I don't know).

My questions are:

1. Why can't I create an extent larger than a datafile's size?
2. How can I combine all of these extents into one extent or a few extents? Will I have to dump the whole table onto tape, disk, etc. and reload the table? Or allocate space for a temp. table, copy all the rows from the orig. table, drop the original table, and then reload the orig. table? Or is there some util. I can use to do this?

I am running Oracle 7.1.3 on DGUX 5.4.3.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Jamie Sutton Received on Wed Feb 22 1995 - 03:33:58 CET