What does enable mean in Oracle DDL constraint?

My understanding is the different between

NOT NULL

and

NOT NULL ENABLE

is that the later will also be be applied to existing data in the table. If then you are starting from scratch is there any point in doing

NOT NULL ENABLE

Thanks

not null is a constraint. The enable that follows it is optional if you want that constraint to be active (which is the default). So

NOT NULL
NOT NULL ENABLE
NOT NULL ENABLE VALIDATE

all mean the same thing (validate is also the default, novalidate being the other option), so there really isn't an "advantage" in specifying it fully (except perhaps for documentary purposes).

If you wanted that not null constraint to be disabled, you could say:

NOT NULL DISABLE -- equivalent to NOT NULL DISABLE NOVALIDATE

or

NOT NULL DISABLE VALIDATE

See the Specifying Constraint State docs for the details and use cases on this topic.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#57123, answer score: 9