Question

I have a large (multi-GB) data file exported from an Oracle table. I want to import this data into another Oracle instance, but I want the table name to be different from the original table. Is this possible? How?

Both importing and exporting systems are Oracle 11g. The table includes a BLOB column, if this makes any difference.

Thanks!

UPDATES:

The idea here was to update a table while keeping the downtime on the system that’s using it to a minimum. The solution (based on Vincent Malgrat‘s answer and APC‘s update) is:

1. Assuming our table name is A
2. Make a temp schema TEMP_SCHEMA
3. Import our data into TEMP_SCHEMA.A
4. CREATE REAL_SCHEMA.B AS SELECT * FROM TEMP_SCHEMA.A
5. DROP TABLE REAL_SCHEMA.A Rename REAL_SCHEMA.A to REAL_SCHEMA.A_OLD
6. Rename REAL_SCHEMA.B to REAL_SCHEMA.A
7. DROP REAL_SCHEMA.A_OLD

This way, the downtime is only during steps 4 and 5, both should be independent of data size. I’ll post an update here if this does not work 🙂

Answer 1

I suppose you want to import the table in a schema in which the name is already being used. I don’t think you can change the table name during the import. However, you can change the schema with the FROMUSER and TOUSER option. This will let you import the table in another (temporary) schema.

When it is done copy the table to the target schema with a CREATE TABLE AS SELECT. The time it will take to copy the table will be negligible compared to the import so this won’t waste too much time. You will need two times the disk space though during the operation.

Update

As suggested by Gary a cleverer method would be to create a view or synonym in the temporary schema that references the new table in the target schema. You won’t need to copy the data after the import as it will go through directly to the target table.