Re: drop column

From: Howard J. Rogers <hjr_at_dizwell.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 23:17:27 +1100
Message-ID: <41bae557$0$1124$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>

vertigo wrote:
> Hello
> I want to set unused column:
>
> SQL> alter table test set unused column name;
> alter table test set unused column name
> *
> Error in line 1:
> ORA-12988: can not delete column from table owned by SYS
>
> similar error when i try to delete it.
> Why i can not delete column from table which was created by SYS ?

Because SYS owns the data dictionary, and therefore to allow you to drop a column from *any* table owned by SYS would imply giving you the right to make structural changes to the data dictionary. It's not on, and it's not do-able.

And you should never, ever be logging on as SYS routinely in any case. And if you do log on as SYS, it should be to startup, shutdown, backup, recover or create a database. Not to create some table or other, do a bit of index maintenance, or fiddle around with user accounts... that's what the SYSTEM account is for.

Regards
HJR
> Thanx
> Michal
>
Received on Sat Dec 11 2004 - 06:17:27 CST