> > One thought about adding a column with a default: > the table has to be locked while every row is updated, > and if the update fails, you have a massive rollback. > > If this is not something you can spare the time for, > you might still want to do something like the following: > > add column > add constraint disable novalidate > update the column where null in batches - committing > add the default > enable the constraint novalidate > update any columns still null > validate the constraint > > > Regards > > Jonathan Lewis > Thanks Jonathan. I had come up with the same solution as Tanel ( for once ). We need to be reminded to ask the questions: "How can this fail?" and "What are the consequences of failure?" Jared ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------