SET_COLUMNS Procedure

This procedure enables you to use an alternate column or group of columns, instead of the primary key, to determine which columns of a table to compare when using row-level replication. You must call this procedure from the master definition site.

When you use column objects, if an attribute of a column object can be used as a primary key or part of a primary key, then the attribute can be part of an alternate key column. For example, if a column object named cust_address has street_address as a VARCHAR2 attribute, then you can specify cust_address.street_address for the column_list parameter or as part of the column_table parameter. However, the entire column object, cust_address, cannot be specified.

For the storage table of a nested table column, this procedure accepts the NESTED_TABLE_ID as an alternate key column.

When you use object tables, you cannot specify alternate key columns. If the object identifier (OID) is system-generated for an object table, then Oracle uses the OID column in the object table as the key for the object table. If the OID is user-defined for an object table, then Oracle uses the primary key in the object table as the key.

The following types of columns cannot be alternate key columns:

• LOB or LOB attribute of a column object
• Collection or collection attribute of a column object
• REF
• An entire column object

  See Also: The constraint_clause in Oracle Database SQL Reference for more information about restrictions on primary key columns

Syntax

DBMS_REPCAT.SET_COLUMNS (
   sname           IN    VARCHAR2,
   oname           IN    VARCHAR2,
   { column_list   IN    VARCHAR2
   | column_table  IN    DBMS_UTILITY.NAME_ARRAY | DBMS_UTILITY.LNAME_ARRAY } );

Note: This procedure is overloaded. The column_list and column_table parameters are mutually exclusive.

Parameters

Table 18-128 SET_COLUMNS Procedure Parameters  

Parameter	Description
sname	Schema in which the table is located.
oname	Name of the table.
column_list	A comma-delimited list of the columns in the table that you want to use as a primary key. There must be no spaces between entries.
column_table	Instead of a list, you can use a PL/SQL index-by table of type DBMS_UTILITY.NAME_ARRAY or DBMS_UTILITY.LNAME_ARRAY to contain the column names. The first column name should be at position 1, the second at position 2, and so on. Use DBMS_UTILITY.LNAME_ARRAY if any column name is greater than or equal to 30 bytes, which may occur when you specify the attributes of column objects.

Exceptions

Table 18-129 SET_COLUMNS Procedure Exceptions  

Exception	Description
nonmasterdef	Invocation site is not the master definition site.
missingobject	Specified object does not exist as a table in the specified schema waiting for row-level replication information.
missingcolumn	At least one column is not in the table.
notquiesced	Replication group is not quiescing or quiesced.