Change the length of a constrained column

2025-10-09 03:34:24  Updated

This topic describes the incompatibilities between an Oracle database and an Oracle-compatible tenant of OceanBase Database in changing the lengths of columns that have different constraints.

Change the length of a PRIMARY KEY column

The following table describes the incompatibilities between an Oracle database and an Oracle-compatible tenant of OceanBase Database in changing the length of a PRIMARY KEY column by using the ALTER TABLE table_name MODIFY DDL statement.

Column type in Oracle database Allowed operation Column type in Oracle-compatible tenant of OceanBase Database Allowed operation
INTEGER - NUMBER(38,0) -
INT - NUMBER(38,0) -
SMALLINT - NUMBER(38,0) -
BINARY_FLOAT - BINARY_FLOAT -
BINARY_DOUBLE - BINARY_DOUBLE -
DECIMAL Increase and decrease the length NUMBER Increase the length
DEC Increase and decrease the length NUMBER Increase the length
NUMERIC Increase and decrease the length NUMBER Increase the length
REAL Increase and decrease the length NUMBER Increase the length
FLOAT Increase and decrease the length FLOAT Increase the length
NUMBER Increase and decrease the length NUMBER Increase the length
NCHAR Increase and decrease the length NCHAR Increase the length
CHAR Increase and decrease the length CHAR Increase the length
CHARACTER Increase and decrease the length CHAR Increase the length
NVARCHAR2 Increase and decrease the length NVARCHAR2 Increase the length
VARCHAR2 Increase and decrease the length VARCHAR2 Increase the length
VARCHAR Increase and decrease the length VARCHAR2 Increase the length
RAW Increase and decrease the length RAW Increase the length
ROWID - ROWID -
UROWID - UROWID -
TIMESTAMP Increase and decrease the length TIMESTAMP Increase the length
TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE Increase and decrease the length TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE Increase and decrease the length
DATE - DATE -
INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH Increase and decrease the length INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH Increase and decrease the length
INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND Increase and decrease the length INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND Increase and decrease the length

Change the length of a UNIQUE KEY column

The incompatibilities between the Oracle database and the Oracle-compatible tenant of OceanBase Database in changing the length of a UNIQUE KEY column by using the ALTER TABLE table_name MODIFY DDL statement are the same as that in changing the length of a PRIMARY KEY column.

Change the length of a column with a CHECK constraint

The following table describes the incompatibilities between an Oracle database and an Oracle-compatible tenant of OceanBase Database in changing the length of a column that has a CHECK constraint by using the ALTER TABLE table_name MODIFY DDL statement.

Column type in Oracle database Allowed operation Column type in Oracle-compatible tenant of OceanBase Database Allowed operation
INTEGER - NUMBER(38,0) -
INT - NUMBER(38,0) -
SMALLINT - NUMBER(38,0) -
BINARY_FLOAT - BINARY_FLOAT -
BINARY_DOUBLE - BINARY_DOUBLE -
DECIMAL Increase and decrease the length NUMBER -
DEC Increase and decrease the length NUMBER -
NUMERIC Increase and decrease the length NUMBER -
REAL Increase and decrease the length NUMBER -
FLOAT Increase and decrease the length FLOAT -
NUMBER Increase and decrease the length NUMBER -
NCHAR Increase and decrease the length NCHAR -
CHAR Increase and decrease the length CHAR -
CHARACTER Increase and decrease the length CHAR -
NVARCHAR2 Increase and decrease the length NVARCHAR2 -
VARCHAR2 Increase and decrease the length VARCHAR2 -
VARCHAR Increase and decrease the length VARCHAR2 -
RAW Increase and decrease the length RAW -
ROWID - ROWID -
UROWID - UROWID -
TIMESTAMP Increase and decrease the length TIMESTAMP -
TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE Increase and decrease the length TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE -
DATE - DATE -
INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH Increase and decrease the length INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH -
INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND Increase and decrease the length INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND -

Change the length of a FOREIGN KEY column

The incompatibilities between the Oracle database and the Oracle-compatible tenant of OceanBase Database in changing the length of a FOREIGN KEY column by using the ALTER TABLE table_name MODIFY DDL statement are the same as that in changing the length of a PRIMARY KEY column.

Contact Us