Re: Drop Columns

Creating a new table from the old but omitting the column you wish to drop is the 'normal' way to do this. There are some software vendors who offer this function in a more automated fashion.

BUT.... if your table is huge, with many FKs and indexes, and you operate a 7x24 shop and there aren't enough hours in the day or free space on your disk for this method ....

Then might I suggest that you update the column to NULL for all rows in the table. Yes the column will still be present, but it will take up no space and you can put a comment on the column saying that it is no longer in use.

The same problem exists should one wish to rename a column. I think I did hear something about column renaming as a new function in some later relase of ORACLE7 .... 7.3 perhaps? Maybe 8? Sure would be nice!

Wayne Linton
DBA, Shell Canada Ltd. Received on Sun Sep 08 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST