Oracle Database Interview Question:

How To Delete a Column in an Existing Table?

Submitted by: Administrator

If you have an existing column in a table and you need that column any more, you can delete it with ALTER TABLE ... DROP COLUMN statement. Here is an example SQL script:

SQL> CREATE TABLE emp_dept_90
2 AS SELECT * FROM employees WHERE department_id=90;
Table created.

SQL> SELECT last_name FROM emp_dept_90;
LAST_NAME
-------------------------
King
Kochhar
De Haan

SQL> ALTER TABLE emp_dept_90 DROP COLUMN last_name;
Table altered.

SQL> SELECT last_name FROM emp_dept_90;
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00904: "LAST_NAME": invalid identifier

As you can see the column "last_name" is gone.
Submitted by: Administrator