title: how to clear individual columns in oracle?
body: <p>i wrote a java app that communicates and stores data in oracle; my question is how do i clear entered information from individual columns in oracle? for example, say i have a following table:    </p>
  
  <p><code>create table example (id integer, name varchar(50), surname varchar(50));</code>  </p>
  
  <p>and it contains current information, how do i then clear individual columns, but keep the rest intact? For example, what if I wanted to clear name and surname columns, but leave id column intact, how would i go about doing that?<br>
  I tried by creating a new table and just copying the id column and then creating name and surname again from scratch like so:  </p>
  
  <p><code>create table example1 as select id from example</code>  </p>
  
  <p>and then issuing the <code>alter table</code> command to add name and surname. Seems a bit redundant but there must be an easier way,  </p>
  
  <p>thanks</p>