Efficient way to update all rows in a table

Question

I have a table with a lot of records (could be more than 500 000 or 1 000 000). I added a new column in this table and I need to fill a value for every row in the column, us

Answer 1

What is the database version? Check out virtual columns in 11g:

Adding Columns with a Default Value http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/oracle-database-11g-top-features/11g-schemamanagement.html