How can I update a 'long' datatype in Oracle?

Question

Probably about 300K rows. Using SQL and/or PL/SQL.

Would it be best to copy/convert into an interim format in a temporary table, work on it and then import it back in?

The updated data would need to remain as a 'long' datatype because we don't have the resources (or inclination) to fix the DB.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Here 4 ways are explained how to convert the long column to a clob. Online redefinition is possible.

http://arjudba.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-convert-long-data-type-to-lob.html