ALTER CLUSTER

Purpose

Use the ALTER CLUSTER statement to redefine storage and parallelism characteristics of a cluster.

Note:

You cannot use this statement to change the number or the name of columns in the cluster key, and you cannot change the tablespace in which the cluster is stored.

See Also:

CREATE CLUSTER for information on creating a cluster, DROP CLUSTER and DROP TABLE for information on removing tables from a cluster, and CREATE TABLE ... physical_properties for information on adding a table to a cluster

Prerequisites

The cluster must be in your own schema or you must have the ALTER ANY CLUSTER system privilege.

Syntax

alter_cluster::=
Description of alter_cluster.gif follows

Description of the illustration alter_cluster.gif

physical_attributes_clause ::=, size_clause::=, allocate_extent_clause::=, deallocate_unused_clause::=, parallel_clause ::=

physical_attributes_clause ::=
Description of physical_attributes_clause.gif follows

Description of the illustration physical_attributes_clause.gif

storage_clause::=

allocate_extent_clause ::=
Description of allocate_extent_clause.gif follows

Description of the illustration allocate_extent_clause.gif

size_clause::=

deallocate_unused_clause ::=
Description of deallocate_unused_clause.gif follows

Description of the illustration deallocate_unused_clause.gif

size_clause::=

size_clause::=
Description of size_clause.gif follows

Description of the illustration size_clause.gif

parallel_clause ::=
Description of parallel_clause.gif follows

Description of the illustration parallel_clause.gif

Semantics

schema

Specify the schema containing the cluster. If you omit schema, Oracle Database assumes the cluster is in your own schema.

cluster

Specify the name of the cluster to be altered.

physical_attributes_clause

Use this clause to change the values of the PCTUSED, PCTFREE, and INITRANS parameters of the cluster. Please refer to physical_attributes_clause for information on these parameters.

Use the STORAGE clause to change the storage characteristics of the cluster. Please refer to storage_clause for a full description of these clause.

Restriction on Physical Attributes

You cannot change the values of the storage parameters INITIAL and MINEXTENTS for a cluster.

SIZE integer

Use the SIZE clause to specify the number of cluster keys that will be stored in data blocks allocated to the cluster.

Restriction on SIZE

You can change the SIZE parameter only for an indexed cluster, not for a hash cluster.

See Also:

CREATE CLUSTER for a description of the SIZE parameter and "Modifying a Cluster: Example"

allocate_extent_clause

Specify the allocate_extent_clause to explicitly allocate a new extent for the cluster.

When you explicitly allocate an extent with this clause, Oracle Database does not evaluate the storage parameters of the cluster and determine a new size for the next extent to be allocated (as it does when you create a table). Therefore, specify SIZE if you do not want Oracle Database to use a default value.

Restriction on Allocating Extents

You can allocate a new extent only for an indexed cluster, not for a hash cluster.

See Also:

allocate_extent_clause for a full description of this clause and "Deallocating Unused Space: Example"

deallocate_unused_clause

Use the deallocate_unused_clause to explicitly deallocate unused space at the end of the cluster and make the freed space available for other segments. Please refer to deallocate_unused_clause for a full description of this clause.

CACHE | NOCACHE

This clause has the same behavior in CREATE CLUSTER and ALTER CLUSTER statements. Please refer to "CACHE | NOCACHE " for information on this clause.

parallel_clause

Specify the parallel_clause to change the default degree of parallelism for queries and DML on the cluster.

Restriction on Parallelized Clusters

If the tables in cluster contain any columns of LOB or user-defined object type, this statement as well as subsequent INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE operations on cluster are executed serially without notification.

For complete information on this clause, please refer to parallel_clause in the documentation on CREATE TABLE.

Examples

The following examples modify the clusters that were created in the "Examples" section of CREATE CLUSTER on .

Modifying a Cluster: Example

The next statement alters the personnel cluster:

ALTER CLUSTER personnel
   SIZE 1024 CACHE;

Oracle Database allocates 1024 bytes for each cluster key value and enables the cache attribute. Assuming a data block size of 2 kilobytes, future data blocks within this cluster contain 2 cluster keys in each data block, or 2 kilobytes divided by 1024 bytes.

Deallocating Unused Space: Example

The following statement deallocates unused space from the language cluster, keeping 30 kilobytes of unused space for future use:

ALTER CLUSTER language 
   DEALLOCATE UNUSED KEEP 30 K;