title: ORA-00905: missing keyword - Alter table modify column not working in Oracle 10g
body: <p>I regularly take caution when creating tables for database. This time I came across a situation to alter a table.</p>
  
  <p>I wanted to change the Data Type of a field/column in Table.</p>
  
  <p>To change the data type of a column in a table: General Syntax</p>
  
  <pre><code>ALTER TABLE table_name ALTER COLUMN column_name datatype
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>SQL Query :</p>
  
  <pre><code>alter table employee modify column ename varchar(40);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I Rarely use Alter and Modify commands. This time when tried, it throws me an Error as <code>ORA-00905: missing keyword</code>.</p>
  
  <p>I surfed the Internet and referred StackOverflow raised questions, but there is no relative answer found.</p>
  
  <p>I also referred this Oracle Documentation : 
  <a href="https://docs.oracle.com/database/121/SQLRF/statements_3001.htm#SQLRF01001" rel="nofollow">Oracle Reference Documentation </a></p>
  
  <p>But It did not help.</p>