Preamble
In Oracle PLSQL Synonym is an alternative name for objects such as tables, views, sequences, stored procedures and other database objects.
Typically, you use synonyms when you provide access to an object from another schema, and you don’t want users to worry about which schema the object belongs to.
Create (or Replace) Synonym
You can create a synonym so that users do not use a table name prefix with the schema name when using a table in a query.
Syntax for creating Oracle/PLSQL synonyms
CREATE [OR REPLACE] [PUBLIC] SYNONYM [schema .] synonym_name
FOR [schema .] object_name [@ dblink];
OR REPLACE
Allows you to recreate a synonym (if it already exists), without having to issue the DROP synonym command.
- PUBLIC – This means that the synonym is public and available to all users. Remember that the user must first have the appropriate privileges for the synonym object.
- schema – The appropriate schema. If this phrase is omitted, Oracle assumes that you are referring to your own schema.
- object_name – The name of the object for which you are creating the synonym. It can be one of the following objects:
- table
- view
- sequence
- stored procedure
- function
- package
- materialized view
- java class schema object
- user-defined object
- synonym
Let’s consider an example of how to create a synonym in Oracle/PLSQL
CREATE PUBLIC SYNONYM suppliers
FOR app;
This first example of CREATE SYNONYM demonstrates how to create a synonym with the name. Now, users of other schemes can reference the table with suppliers without the prefix of the scheme name and table name.
SELECT *
FROM suppliers;
If this synonym already exists and you want to recreate it, you can use OR REPLACE as follows:
CREATE OR REPLACE PUBLIC SYNONYM suppliers
FOR app.suppliers;
Drop synonym
After the synonym was created in Oracle, you will need to remove it at some point.
drop synonym syntax in Oracle/PLSQL
DROP [PUBLIC] SYNONYM [schema .] synonym_name [force];
- PUBLIC – Allows you to remove the public synonym. If you specified a PUBLIC, you may not need to specify a schema.
- Force – This will force Oracle to remove the synonym, even if it has dependencies. This is probably not a good idea to use force, as it can invalidate Oracle objects.
Let us consider an example of how to remove synonym in Oracle/PLSQL
For example:
DROP PUBLIC SYNONYM;
The DROP operator will delete the synonym with the name of suppliers that we defined earlier.
About Enteros
Enteros offers a patented database performance management SaaS platform. It proactively identifies root causes of complex business-impacting database scalability and performance issues across a growing number of clouds, RDBMS, NoSQL, and machine learning database platforms.
The views expressed on this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Enteros Inc. This blog may contain links to the content of third-party sites. By providing such links, Enteros Inc. does not adopt, guarantee, approve, or endorse the information, views, or products available on such sites.
Are you interested in writing for Enteros’ Blog? Please send us a pitch!
RELATED POSTS
How Can Banks Prevent Database Bottlenecks in Real-Time Financial Transactions?
- 1 September 2026
- Database Performance Management
Banks can prevent database bottlenecks in banking by continuously monitoring SQL workloads, optimizing queries and indexes, detecting resource contention, analyzing transaction latency, and identifying anomalies before performance declines. Effective database performance monitoring for banks provides real-time workload visibility and faster root cause analysis. Enteros helps financial institutions identify database inefficiencies and maintain reliable, scalable transaction … Continue reading “How Can Banks Prevent Database Bottlenecks in Real-Time Financial Transactions?”
Why Is Database Observability Important for Modern Hospitals and Healthcare IT Teams?
Database observability in healthcare is important because hospitals depend on databases to power EHRs, patient portals, clinical applications, billing, analytics, and other essential systems. It gives healthcare IT teams deeper visibility into SQL workloads, resource usage, bottlenecks, and performance changes. Enteros supports this approach with database observability, AI-powered analysis, anomaly detection, and root cause analysis … Continue reading “Why Is Database Observability Important for Modern Hospitals and Healthcare IT Teams?”
How Can Healthcare Organizations Reduce Cloud Database Costs With AIOps and FinOps
Healthcare organizations can reduce cloud database costs by combining AIOps with FinOps to identify inefficient workloads, detect anomalies, rightsize resources, and connect database performance with infrastructure spending. Effective healthcare cloud database cost optimization focuses on eliminating waste without compromising reliability. Enteros supports this approach through database observability, AI-powered SQL analysis, root cause analysis, performance intelligence, … Continue reading “How Can Healthcare Organizations Reduce Cloud Database Costs With AIOps and FinOps”
What Database Performance Challenges Do Hospitals Face in Cloud-Based Healthcare Systems?
Hospitals face database performance challenges such as slow SQL queries, growing healthcare data, EHR performance issues, database bottlenecks, resource contention, cloud complexity, and rising costs. Cloud-based healthcare systems require continuous database monitoring, workload optimization, anomaly detection, and root-cause analysis. AI-powered AIOps can help hospitals improve database performance, reliability, scalability, and cloud cost efficiency while supporting … Continue reading “What Database Performance Challenges Do Hospitals Face in Cloud-Based Healthcare Systems?”