How to drop Oracle LOB

Question

The following query can be used to list the database objects of the user:

select object_name, object_type from user_objects;

There are couple of entries where the object_type is LOB.

How can these LOB objects be dropped in Oracle?

Answer 1

One scenario where you can see a LOB in user_objects but the join to user_lobs doesn't find anything is if the table has already been dropped, but is in the recycle bin.

create table t42 (my_clob clob);

table T42 created.

As expected, Justin's query shows you the column:

select l.table_name,
       l.column_name,
       l.segment_name lob_name
  from user_lobs l
       join user_objects o
         on( o.object_name = l.segment_name );

TABLE_NAME  COLUMN_NAME LOB_NAME                     
----------- ----------- ------------------------------
T42         MY_CLOB     SYS_LOB0000133310C00001$$      

drop table t42;

table T42 dropped.

Now Justin's query doesn't find anything:

select l.table_name,
       l.column_name,
       l.segment_name lob_name
  from user_lobs l
       join user_objects o
         on( o.object_name = l.segment_name );

no rows selected

But it's still in user_objects:

select object_name, object_type, status from user_objects
where object_type like 'LOB%';

OBJECT_NAME                    OBJECT_TYPE         STATUS
------------------------------ ------------------- -------
SYS_LOB0000133328C00001$$      LOB                 VALID   

And you can see it in the recycle bin:

select * from user_recyclebin;

OBJECT_NAME                    ORIGINAL_NAME                    OPERATION TYPE                      TS_NAME                        CREATETIME          DROPTIME               DROPSCN PARTITION_NAME                   CAN_UNDROP CAN_PURGE    RELATED BASE_OBJECT PURGE_OBJECT      SPACE
------------------------------ -------------------------------- --------- ------------------------- ------------------------------ ------------------- ------------------- ---------- -------------------------------- ---------- --------- ---------- ----------- ------------ ----------
SYS_IL0000133310C00001$$       SYS_IL0000133310C00001$$         DROP      LOB INDEX                 USERS                          2013-08-22:08:33:21 2013-08-22:08:33:21    1.0E+13                                  NO         NO            133310      133310       133310          0 
SYS_LOB0000133310C00001$$      SYS_LOB0000133310C00001$$        DROP      LOB                       USERS                          2013-08-22:08:33:21 2013-08-22:08:33:21    1.0E+13                                  NO         NO            133310      133310       133310          0 
BIN$5IUNXtWkUXLgQwEAAH9TlQ==$0 T42                              DROP      TABLE                     USERS                          2013-08-22:08:33:21 2013-08-22:08:33:21    1.0E+13                                  YES        YES           133310      133310       133310          0 

The LOB still exists on disk and is using storage, which I guess is what you're concerned about. So to sort of answer your question, to really drop the LOB and release its storage you need to purge the whole table:

purge table t42;

table purged.

select object_name, object_type, status from user_objects
where object_type like 'LOB%';

no rows selected

---

Interestingly you don't see this effect if you name the LOB segment:

create table t42 (my_clob clob)
lob (my_clob) store as my_clob_segment;

Repeating the steps above, the entry has gone from user_objects after the drop.

drop table t42;

table T42 dropped.

select object_name, object_type, status from user_objects
where object_type like 'LOB%';

no rows selected

select * from user_recyclebin;

OBJECT_NAME                    ORIGINAL_NAME                    OPERATION TYPE                      TS_NAME                        CREATETIME          DROPTIME               DROPSCN PARTITION_NAME                   CAN_UNDROP CAN_PURGE    RELATED BASE_OBJECT PURGE_OBJECT      SPACE
------------------------------ -------------------------------- --------- ------------------------- ------------------------------ ------------------- ------------------- ---------- -------------------------------- ---------- --------- ---------- ----------- ------------ ----------
BIN$5IUNXtWnUXLgQwEAAH9TlQ==$0 MY_CLOB_SEGMENT                  DROP      LOB                       USERS                          2013-08-22:08:36:41 2013-08-22:08:36:41    1.0E+13                                  NO         NO            133316      133316       133316          0 
BIN$5IUNXtWoUXLgQwEAAH9TlQ==$0 T42                              DROP      TABLE                     USERS                          2013-08-22:08:36:41 2013-08-22:08:36:41    1.0E+13                                  YES        YES           133316      133316       133316          0 
SYS_IL0000133316C00001$$       SYS_IL0000133316C00001$$         DROP      LOB INDEX                 USERS                          2013-08-22:08:36:41 2013-08-22:08:36:41    1.0E+13                                  NO         NO            133316      133316       133316          0 

The storage is still being used of course and you still need to purge to free it, it just looks a bit more consistent in the data dictionary. So this looks like a (very minor) bug, maybe, at most. It might be related to the behaviour referred to in support note 394442.1.