Question-Synonym/View Definition Modifications

I have a situation where I need to perform a periodic reload of a set of tables. I am flush with disk space and I would like to keep two copies of each table - say A1 and A2. The tables have identical definitions. I would like for my applications to use the data in table A1 but to know the table as simply A. I realize I can use either a synonym (best choice) or a view to accomplish this.

My problem is this. I want to completely reload the second table (A2) while my applications are using A1, and when the reload has been verified as being good, I want to redo the synonym or view to point to A2. In this manner the applications experience minimum "downtime" because of the reload. Of course when I redo the synonym or view definition virtually every object that references the synonym or view is marked as invalid, pending re-compiliation.

Does anyone know how I can accomplish this "table rename" in a smooth manner? It is analagous to the ancient method of renaming master files after an update was performed on them - a simple thing to do with a file system but seemingly impossible with an Oracle database!

Thanks for any help...

-wesley

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| Wesley M. Stephens                     Phone:  (423) 576-1933     | 

| Lockheed Martin Energy Systems         Fax:    (423) 576-0099     |  

| P.O. Box 2009                          Email:   wms_at_ornl.gov      |

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