Column Name Change

Good Morning,

Is it possible to change a column name of a table after the table has been
created? I have a table called Members that have FirstName, LastName
columns. The problem I have is the information that got put into the table
had the names reversed, so now all the first names are in the LastNamr
column and all of the last names are in the FirstName columns. I tried
Delete Members but I recieved an error about a value being shared, I found
on one website Replace Column column_name To new_name but this did not work
as I could not figure out how to reference which table I wanted to make that
change in.

Just kind of stuck at the moment, seems easiest thing would be just to
cjange the column headings to match the data but I can not find a Modify or
AlterTable command to do this?

Thanks for the help,

Jeff

On Dec 2, 7:07 am, "Jeff B" wrote:
> Good Morning,
>
> Is it possible to change a column name of a table after the table has been
> created? I have a table called Members that have FirstName, LastName
> columns. The problem I have is the information that got put into the table
> had the names reversed, so now all the first names are in the LastNamr
> column and all of the last names are in the FirstName columns. I tried
> Delete Members but I recieved an error about a value being shared, I found
> on one website Replace Column column_name To new_name but this did not work
> as I could not figure out how to reference which table I wanted to make that
> change in.
>
> Just kind of stuck at the moment, seems easiest thing would be just to
> cjange the column headings to match the data but I can not find a Modify or
> AlterTable command to do this?
>
> Thanks for the help,
>
> Jeff

If you are running Oracle 9i R2 and above, there is a quick way to
rename a column. From a Google search on the terms: alter table
rename column oracle:
http://download-uk.oracle.com/docs/cd/B10501_01/server.920/a96540/stat...nts_32a

Another option is to rename the table, then use a CREATE TABLE AS
SELECT to create a new table with the old name that is based on the
column definitions (rename the columns using an alias in the select),
bringing along the data from the old table. You will then need to
recreate any triggers that were on the old table.

Another option is to update both colunms in the table at the same time
and set:
LASTNAME=FIRSTNAME,
FIRSTNAME=LASTNAME

A fourth option is to create a view based on the table with the column
names aliased to their correct meaning.

Charles Hooper
IT Manager/Oracle DBA
K&M Machine-Fabricating, Inc.