USER_TAB_COLUMNS Changes

Interestingly a few columns have appeared at the bottom of USER_TAB_COLUMNS, DBA_TAB_COLUMNS and ALL_TAB_COLUMNS. In wonder whether Edition Based Definition might be changing to removed the need for editioning views in a future release?

The TABLE_NAME and COLUMN_NAME fields have also changed from VARCHAR2(30) to VARCHAR2(128), though I have so far been unable to create any tables with names containing more that 30 characters, or columns with names containing more that 30 characters.

The LOW_VALUE and HIGH_VALUE field sizes have also increased, which merits furthur investigation (on the list).

Oracle 11.2.0.2.0Oracle 12.1.0.1.0
 Name                   Null?    Type
 ---------------------- -------- --------------
 TABLE_NAME             NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
 COLUMN_NAME            NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
 DATA_TYPE                       VARCHAR2(106)
 DATA_TYPE_MOD                   VARCHAR2(3)
 DATA_TYPE_OWNER                 VARCHAR2(120)
 DATA_LENGTH            NOT NULL NUMBER
 DATA_PRECISION                  NUMBER
 DATA_SCALE                      NUMBER
 NULLABLE                        VARCHAR2(1)
 COLUMN_ID                       NUMBER
 DEFAULT_LENGTH                  NUMBER
 DATA_DEFAULT                    LONG
 NUM_DISTINCT                    NUMBER
 LOW_VALUE                       RAW(32)
 HIGH_VALUE                      RAW(32)
 DENSITY                         NUMBER
 NUM_NULLS                       NUMBER
 NUM_BUCKETS                     NUMBER
 LAST_ANALYZED                   DATE
 SAMPLE_SIZE                     NUMBER
 CHARACTER_SET_NAME              VARCHAR2(44)
 CHAR_COL_DECL_LENGTH            NUMBER
 GLOBAL_STATS                    VARCHAR2(3)
 USER_STATS                      VARCHAR2(3)
 AVG_COL_LEN                     NUMBER
 CHAR_LENGTH                     NUMBER
 CHAR_USED                       VARCHAR2(1)
 V80_FMT_IMAGE                   VARCHAR2(3)
 DATA_UPGRADED                   VARCHAR2(3)
 HISTOGRAM                       VARCHAR2(15)
	
 Name                   Null?    Type
 ---------------------- -------- --------------
 TABLE_NAME             NOT NULL VARCHAR2(128)
 COLUMN_NAME            NOT NULL VARCHAR2(128)
 DATA_TYPE                       VARCHAR2(128)
 DATA_TYPE_MOD                   VARCHAR2(3)
 DATA_TYPE_OWNER                 VARCHAR2(128)
 DATA_LENGTH            NOT NULL NUMBER
 DATA_PRECISION                  NUMBER
 DATA_SCALE                      NUMBER
 NULLABLE                        VARCHAR2(1)
 COLUMN_ID                       NUMBER
 DEFAULT_LENGTH                  NUMBER
 DATA_DEFAULT                    LONG
 NUM_DISTINCT                    NUMBER
 LOW_VALUE                       RAW(1000)
 HIGH_VALUE                      RAW(1000)
 DENSITY                         NUMBER
 NUM_NULLS                       NUMBER
 NUM_BUCKETS                     NUMBER
 LAST_ANALYZED                   DATE
 SAMPLE_SIZE                     NUMBER
 CHARACTER_SET_NAME              VARCHAR2(44)
 CHAR_COL_DECL_LENGTH            NUMBER
 GLOBAL_STATS                    VARCHAR2(3)
 USER_STATS                      VARCHAR2(3)
 AVG_COL_LEN                     NUMBER
 CHAR_LENGTH                     NUMBER
 CHAR_USED                       VARCHAR2(1)
 V80_FMT_IMAGE                   VARCHAR2(3)
 DATA_UPGRADED                   VARCHAR2(3)
 HISTOGRAM                       VARCHAR2(15)
 DEFAULT_ON_NULL                 VARCHAR2(3)
 IDENTITY_COLUMN                 VARCHAR2(3)
 EVALUATION_EDITION              VARCHAR2(128)
 UNUSABLE_BEFORE                 VARCHAR2(128)
 UNUSABLE_BEGINNING              VARCHAR2(128)