Getting Back Space Reserved w/ PCT_FREE

A bunch of our fact tables were created w/ PCT_FREE = 10.
The rows in these tables never get updated. We have lost a TON of space (200MB in a 2GB * 160 files) and I would like to reset PCT_FREE to 0. Is there a way to reclaim the space and reset the value w/o having to do a full export and reimport?

Joe

Hi Joe,

When you change the PCTFREE parameter for a table the new settings apply
to all data blocks used by the table. However blocks already allocated are not
immediately reorganised but as necessary after change. If you are not making
changes to the table or require the space to be reclaimed immediately then
I believe an export/import is one option. Another way (which may be quicker)
but would require double the disk space is:

1. Create a copy of the table using
'Create table copytable as (select * from origtable)'

2. Drop the original table.

3. Create a table (using the original table name) with the correct
storage parameters.

4. Insert the rows from the copy table.

Hope this helps

Moff

Hi Moff,
You can avoid first 2 steps.(1,2) in the 4 th step instead of from copy table ,pick the rows from original table.

Can you create a table with the same name in the same schema?

If you

create table origtable as (select * from origtable);

you get an ORA-955 error - name already used by an existing object

I'm assuming the original requirement was for the reorgainised table
to have the same name and be in the same schema.

Rgds

Moff.

Just RENAME the original table then you can reCreate and Insert.