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Asked: 2026-06-01T02:05:25+00:00

This link states that all columns that are nullable should be added to the

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This link states that all columns that are nullable should be added to the end of a database table to conserve space.

My question is how can I ensure that a column in always added to the end of database table. I am assuming that when I CREATE TABLE .., I should add all NULLABLE columns in the end. But how does this work when I use ALTER TABLE X ADD COLUMN ..?

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  1. Editorial Team

    Oracle, unlike some DBMSes, offers no way to add a column at a specific position in the table; new columns are always added at the end. So, you can’t do anything special for this. All you’ve got is:

    • Usually, if your table has nullable columns, you won’t be needing to add any new non-nullable columns (especially since you’d have to update all existing records to supply some sort of filler value).
    • It’s not very harmful to have nullable columns in the middle; all that means is that the length (0) needs to be stored when it otherwise would not. Unless you really have huge numbers of rows that have very little non-null data but lots of trailing nulls, this really won’t make a significant difference.
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