Reference Manual
   CHAPTER 9. SQL Statements     

VALIDATE TABLE statement

Function 

To validate a table in the database.

Syntax 

VALIDATE TABLE [ owner.]table-name

Permissions 

Must be the owner of the table, have DBA authority, or have REMOTE DBA authority (SQL Remote).

Side effects 

None.

See also 

The Validation utility

Description 

The VALIDATE TABLE statement will scan every row of a table, and look up each row in each index on the table. If the database file is corrupt, an error will be reported. This should not happen. However, because DOS and Windows are unprotected operating environments, other software can corrupt memory used by the database server. This problem may be detected through software errors or crashes, or the corrupt memory could get written to the database, creating a corrupt database file. Also, in any operating system, hardware problems with the disk could cause the database file to get corrupted.

If you do have errors reported, you can drop all of the indexes and keys on a table and recreate them. Any foreign keys to the table will also need to be recreated. Another solution to errors reported by VALIDATE TABLE is to unload and reload your entire database. You should use the -u option of DBUNLOAD so that it will not try to use a possibly corrupt index to order the data.

Standards and compatibility 

• SQL/92     Vendor extension

• Sybase     VALIDATE TABLE is not supported in Adaptive Server Enterprise. The procedure dbcc checktable provides a similar function.