Any effect on Index organization upon column modification?

[engineer2100]

I have an index on a column (Varchar2 - i know bad idea, but its already there). Now there is a requirement that the size of this column needs to be increased.

Could someone help me understand if there will be any impact on the index organization? if yes and -ve impact what should I consider doing to avoid such an impact?

Thanks
Engi

 

[SantaMufasa]

Engi,

Widening a column has no effect on a table or its indexes since such a modification simply tells the data dictionary that future data can consume more characters than you previously allowed the column to consume.

In Oracle, cells consumes only the number of characters that data for that cell requires. Therefore, a particular cell can consume as little as 0 bytes, and as many as the current maximum bytes for that column.

Therefore, there is no impact either upon table data or indexes when you "widen" a column.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I can provide you with low-cost, remote Database Administration services: see our website and contact me via www.dasages.com]

 

[engineer2100]

thank you Santa...