Re: Can Oracle drop a column?

On 26 May 1997 13:13:31 GMT, dmmatt_at_monsanto.com (D.M. Mattix) wrote:

>This is very interesting. The only relational database that I have found in
>which you can drop a column is Rdb (Oracle Rdb used to be DEC Rdb).
>If you underestimate the size of a varchar column and need to extend it
>you can add a new larger column and (using SQL) copy the data to it
>but you cannot get rid of the old column. With Rdb you can even alter

You can allways extend the size of columns, no matter if columns are populated with non-null values or not (no need of adding aditional column)!

>the column in place although it is not recommended without a lot of
>thought (it will truncate the data that does not fit into the new definition).
>
>D.M. (Mike) Mattix
>Monsanto Company
>Luling, LA
>dmmatt_at_monsanto.com
>(My comments do not reflect the position of Monsanto)
>(I know, like you thought they did..)

Regarding above suggestions of droping column by creating new table and dropping old one, don't forget to recreate/reenable all constraints, indexes, triggers, ....

Regards,

Jurij Modic				Republic of Slovenia
tel: +386 61 178 55 14			Ministry of Finance
fax: +386 61  21 45 84			Zupanciceva 3
e-mail: jurij.modic_at_mf.sigov.mail.si	Ljubljana 1000