Partitioned nested table error while dropping one partition

Question

All,
I created a partitioned table which is also a nested table as you can see below. I got FK constraint error while attempting to drop a partition, however, I could not find the FK in order to disable it since it's underlying table emp_list_p which is not visiable to applications. How could I drop the partition in this case?
Thanks,
Jianhui
SQL>desc emp_t
Name Null? Type
ENO NUMBER
ENAME VARCHAR2(30)
SAL NUMBER
SQL>desc emp_list_t
emp_list_t TABLE OF EMP_T
Name Null? Type
ENO NUMBER
ENAME VARCHAR2(30)
SAL NUMBER
SQL>l
1 create table dept_p
2 (dno number,
3 dname varchar2(30),
4 emplist emp_list_t )
5 NESTED TABLE emplist store as emp_list_p
6 partition by range (dno)
7 (
8 partition p1 values less than (2),
9 partition p2 values less than (3)
10* )
SQL>/
Table created.
SQL>insert into dept_p (select * from dept);
2 rows created.
SQL>select * from dept_p;
DNO DNAME
EMPLIST(ENO, ENAME, SAL)
1 HR
EMP_LIST_T(EMP_T(1, 'scott', 1000), EMP_T(2, 'brain', 2000))
2 SALES
EMP_LIST_T(EMP_T(3, 'frank', 800))
2 rows selected.
SQL>alter table dept_p drop partition p1;
alter table dept_p drop partition p1
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02266: unique/primary keys in table referenced by enabled foreign keys
SQL>l
1 select constraint_name, constraint_type, table_name
2 from user_constraints
3 where r_constraint_name=(select constraint_name
4* from user_constraints where table_name='DEPT_P' and constraint_type in ('P','U'))
SQL>/
no rows selected

Answer 1

SQL> create type emp_t as object(
  2  ENO NUMBER,
  3  ENAME VARCHAR2(30),
  4  SAL NUMBER)
  5  /
Type created.
SQL> create type emp_list_t as table of emp_t;
  2  /
Type created.
SQL> desc emp_list_t
emp_list_t TABLE OF EMP_T
Name                                      Null?    Type
ENO                                                NUMBER
ENAME                                              VARCHAR2(30)
SAL                                                NUMBER
SQL> create table dept_p
  2  (dno number,
  3  dname varchar2(30),
  4  emplist emp_list_t )
  5  NESTED TABLE emplist store as emp_list_p
  6  partition by range (dno)
  7   (
  8   partition p1 values less than (2),
  9   partition p2 values less than (3)
10   )
11  /
Table created.
SQL> insert into dept_p values(1, 'HR',
  2  EMP_LIST_T(EMP_T(1, 'scott', 1000), EMP_T(2, 'brain', 2000)));
1 row created.
SQL>
SQL> insert into dept_p values(2, 'SALES',EMP_LIST_T(EMP_T(3, 'frank', 800)));
1 row created.
SQL> select * from dept_p;
       DNO DNAME
EMPLIST(ENO, ENAME, SAL)
         1 HR
EMP_LIST_T(EMP_T(1, 'scott', 1000), EMP_T(2, 'brain', 2000))
         2 SALES
EMP_LIST_T(EMP_T(3, 'frank', 800))
SQL> alter table dept_p drop partition p1;
alter table dept_p drop partition p1
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02266: unique/primary keys in table referenced by enabled foreign keys
SQL> select constraint_name,table_name,constraint_type from user_constraints
  2  where table_name = 'DEPT_P';
CONSTRAINT_NAME                TABLE_NAME                     C
SYS_C008224                    DEPT_P                         U
SQL> select index_name from user_constraints
  2  where table_name = 'DEPT_P';
INDEX_NAME
SYS_C008224
SQL> select index_name,column_name from user_ind_columns
  2  where index_name = 'SYS_C008224';
INDEX_NAME                     COLUMN_NAME
SYS_C008224                    EMPLIST
SQL>
SQL> disconnect
Disconnected from Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.1.0.4.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Data Mining options
If you look closely, there is a unique index on dept_p.  Oracle does not advertise it.
One of the options is that you may have to delete the rows in the partition first,
then drop the partition.