'Why am I getting "ORA-01429: Index-Organized Table" when trying to modify column from VARCHAR2(200) to VARCHAR2(1000)?

It's currently a VARCHAR2(200) in the database, but it needs to be raised to VARCHAR(1000), so I am attempting to run this script:

ALTER TABLE CONTRACTOR MODIFY
(
    NOTE VARCHAR2(1000)
);

Oracle gives me this:

ORA-01429: Index-Organized Table: no data segment to store overflow row-pieces

This is a 10g database. Any ideas what's up? I could create a duplicate column, copy the data over, and then drop the old column, but I would like to know what this error is first before I do that.



Solution 1:[1]

I came across this highly ranked page when i googled 'ORA-01429'. I also faced the same exception when i was trying to split OVERFLOW partition in a Oracle 11G table.

*Incorrect*:
alter table sales SPLIT PARTITION OVERFLOW at (TO_DATE('01-FEB-2017 00:00:00', 'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS')) 
  INTO (PARTITION sales_m01_2017, PARTITION OVERFLOW);

*Fixed*:
alter table sales SPLIT PARTITION OVERFLOW at (TO_DATE('01-FEB-2017 00:00:00', 'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS')) 
  INTO (PARTITION sales_m01_2017, PARTITION "OVERFLOW");

I got the fix for my problem at following: https://community.oracle.com/thread/2244949?tstart=0

OVERFLOW has to be double quoted like "OVERFLOW". I though to share it here in the interest of other stackoverflow fans facing the same ORA exception while spliting OVERFLOW partition.

Solution 2:[2]

you can run sql: alter table table_name add overflow; then run your sql

Sources

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Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 pahariayogi
Solution 2 Oscar Yang