Xref: alice comp.databases.oracle.server:83150
Path: alice!news-feed.fnsi.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!colt.net!nyc-news-feed1.bbnplanet.com!washdc3-snh1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!dfiatx1-snr1.gtei.net.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: "John Haskins" <76054.334SPAMBEGONE@compuserve.com>
Newsgroups: comp.databases.oracle.server
Subject: How to delete column from table containing LONG RAW?
Lines: 30
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300
Message-ID: <WR2m4.731$kP3.20332@dfiatx1-snr1.gtei.net>
X-Trace: /ba9QeNki5e1uu3Zh2eKdo+A/yF6kfImTd4npo5qTXZj/9fWcnzgK898eZh2NOi7hrsubaGMJSc+!FgJCA+HtOvaDBDy6i/xhZguFM0lAHcps2GYrMyySR78baoWG4QHcO/gPj64AJZAkwNYGycQn73qF
X-Complaints-To: abuse@gte.net
X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2000 23:12:54 GMT
Distribution: world
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2000 23:12:54 GMT

Greetings:

I've hit a dead-end attempting to remove a column from a table that contains
a LONG RAW column.  I'm not trying to directly delete the column, of course;
I've made a copy of the table that excludes the column I no longer need, and
planned to transfer the old data to the new table by using an INSERT INTO
command from the old table.

The problem is that the INSERT INTO command cannot include a LONG RAW
column.  Attempting to use the command in this way produces the following
error message:
    ORA-00997: illegal use of LONG datatype

A call to Oracle tech support produced the information that INSERT INTO
can't include a LONG RAW column (the documentation does not mention that).
This means that I don't have a way to move the LONG RAW data to my new
table.

The net result of this is that once a LONG RAW column is added to a table,
no other columns can be deleted from the table.  I find it incredible that
such a limitation would be the case, but according to Oracle support, it is.
(The database version is 8.0.5, BTW.)

If anyone here has a suggestion about how to move that data from the
original table's LONG RAW column to the new table's LONG RAW, I would very
much appreciate hearing it.