RENAME COLUMN statement

Use the RENAME COLUMN statement to rename a column in a table.

The RENAME COLUMN statement allows you to rename an existing column in an existing table in any schema (except the schema SYS).

To rename a column, you must either be the database owner or the table owner.

Other types of table alterations are possible; see ALTER TABLE statement for more information.

Syntax

RENAME COLUMN tableName.simpleColumnName TO simpleColumnName

Examples

To rename the manager column in table employee to supervisor, use the following syntax:

RENAME COLUMN EMPLOYEE.MANAGER TO SUPERVISOR

You can combine ALTER TABLE and RENAME COLUMN to modify a column's data type. To change column c1 of table t to the new data type NEWTYPE:


    ALTER TABLE t ADD COLUMN c1_newtype NEWTYPE
    UPDATE t SET c1_newtype = c1
    ALTER TABLE t DROP COLUMN c1
    RENAME COLUMN t.c1_newtype TO c1

Usage notes

Restriction: If a view, trigger, check constraint, foreign key constraint, or generationClause of a generated column references the column, an attempt to rename it will generate an error.

Restriction: The RENAME COLUMN statement is not allowed if there are any open cursors that reference the column that is being altered.

Note: If there is an index defined on the column, the column can still be renamed; the index is automatically updated to refer to the column by its new name