Re: NOT NULL vs NULL column in a fact table
- From: tboss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: genegurevich@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 20:00:20 -0400 (EDT)
Not sure what version you're on, but I ran into a debilitating bug related to
exactly this situation in 9i. I needed to add a column, added it as suggested
by others (alter table add column, populate, alter column not null). If you
load
data via alter table exchange partition and have local bitmap indexes (like I'd
assume you do in a DW environment), you can corrupt something called the "Hakan
Factor"
within oracle's data dictionary.
See Metalink note 248634.1 and bugid 4221789 for the orig documents. It says
its
fixed in 9208 and in the base of 10g, but we've all seen issues persist past
major releases.
The thing i'd be worried about in your case is the introduction of random data
dictionary corruption like the above by adding and dropping columns from
tables.
In the above case, there was some obscure event I could have set before
exchanging
the partitions that would have prevented the issue.
Based on what you say though, you may not have a choice. But if at all possible
I'd do a ctas to create a clean table.
my 2 cents, todd
>
> Hi all
>
> I have several medium to large fact tables to which I need to add a NOT
> NULL column. In the past I would do the following:
>
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