The Dropped Table

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Like an incorrect update to the table, an inadvertently dropped table can be catastrophic. Unlike an inadvertent DML statement (insert, update, or delete), a drop cannot be explored and fixed manually. Once dropped, the table must be restored from a backup of some sort.

The DBA at Horatio's Woodscrews did this one to himself: he was trying to clean up unused objects in the production database. There were some leftover tables that had been used for testing purposes in a now-abandoned user's schema. The DBA was reviewing the objects and then dropping them to free up the extents. However, for the Woodscrew table, he put the wrong username in the DROP statement by accident, and he knew it immediately: ws_app.woodscrew had just been dropped.

Use Flashback Drop to Restore Dropped Objects

In Oracle Database 10g, as part of the Flashback Technologies, Oracle introduced Flashback Drop. Now, when an object is dropped, it is placed in a Recycle Bin, where it is stored until there is space pressure in the tablespace. Until it ages out, the object can be 'undropped' in only a few moments. For more information, see Chapter 9.

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