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Asked: 2026-06-09T06:39:30+00:00

So, I ran the query select * from dba_data_files I want to know what

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So, I ran the query

select * from dba_data_files

I want to know what does the column BYTES and USER_BYTES mean. Does BYTES mean the space allocated and USER_BYTES mean the space that is used up? Please clarify.

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  1. Editorial Team

    According to the documentation:

    BYTES Size of the file in bytes

    USER_BYTES The size of the file available for user data. The actual size of the file minus the USER_BYTES value is used to store file related metadata.

    On my system, for example, BYTES-USER_BYTES is exactly 1,048,576 (1M) for each file.

    In this context, “space allocated” and “space used up” are effectively the same thing – i.e. space allocated on disk = space used on disk.

    To find out how much free space is available (e.g. for new tables & indexes or growth of existing ones), query dba_free_space.

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