Purpose

Use the RENAME statement to rename a table, view, sequence, or private synonym.

• Oracle Database automatically transfers integrity constraints, indexes, and grants on the old object to the new object.

• Oracle Database invalidates all objects that depend on the renamed object, such as views, synonyms, and stored procedures and functions that refer to a renamed table.

Prerequisites

The object must be in your own schema.

Syntax

rename::=

Description of the illustration rename.eps

Semantics

old_name

Specify the name of an existing table, view, sequence, or private synonym.

new_name

Specify the new name to be given to the existing object. The new name must not already be used by another schema object in the same namespace and must follow the rules for naming schema objects.

Restrictions on Renaming Objects

Renaming objects is subject to the following restrictions:

• You cannot rename a public synonym. Instead, drop the public synonym and then re-create the public synonym with the new name.

• You cannot rename a type synonym that has any dependent tables or dependent valid user-defined object types.

Examples

Renaming a Database Object: Example

The following example uses a copy of the sample table hr.departments. To change the name of table departments_new to emp_departments, issue the following statement:

RENAME departments_new TO emp_departments;

You cannot use this statement directly to rename columns. However, you can rename a column using the ALTER TABLE ... rename_column_clause.

Another way to rename a column is to use the RENAME statement together with the CREATE TABLE statement with AS subquery. This method is useful if you are changing the structure of a table rather than only renaming a column. The following statements re-create the sample table hr.job_history, renaming a column from department_id to dept_id:

CREATE TABLE temporary 
   (employee_id, start_date, end_date, job_id, dept_id) 
AS SELECT 
     employee_id, start_date, end_date, job_id, department_id
FROM job_history; 

DROP TABLE job_history; 

RENAME temporary TO job_history; 

Any integrity constraints defined on table job_history will be lost in the preceding example. You will have to redefine them on the new job_history table using an ALTER TABLE statement.