What is the difference between column mapping and vertical partitioning (4296849)

The column mapping and vertical partitioning features appear to be similar when their respective config file is viewed but there are differences in these two configurations.

Here are some of the differences between the two:

The vertical partitioning feature is used for replication of a subset of columns from the source table whereas the column mapping requires that all columns from the source table be replicated.

In vertical partitioning the column names can be different but the datatype needs to be identical. In column mapping, the names as well as the datatypes of the columns can be different (only for Oracle source to Oracle target) subject to Oracle being able to do implicit conversion. For example, if the source datatype is NUMBER and the target datatype is VARCHAR2, it will be acceptable.

In vertical partitioning, if the source and target tables have identical owner/name, then the target column list can be omitted. However, in case of column mapping, the target table column list needs to be included in the config file.