Applies to:
 Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 8.0.3.0 to 11.2.0.3 [Release 8.0.3 to 11.2]
Information in this document applies to any platform.
 ***Checked for relevance on 12-Feb-2016***

Symptoms

You are trying to issue an analyze command on a partition table on version 8.0.x and above of the database.

You are issuing this command:

  analyze table validate structure cascade;

and have tried
  analyze table partition () validate structure cascade;

and you keep receiving the following error:
 ORA-14508: "specified VALIDATE INTO table not found"

Example (11gR2):

SQL> analyze table sh.sales partition (SALES_Q4_2000) validate structure cascade;
analyze table sh.sales partition (SALES_Q4_2000) validate structure cascade
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-14508: specified VALIDATE INTO table not found

You tested that on a non-partitioned table the analyze command works without an error.

Cause

As indicated by the actual error message, a result target table is missing.

$ oerr ora 14508
14508, 00000, "specified VALIDATE INTO table not found"
// *Cause: The specified table either does not exist or user does not have
// the proper privleges.
// *Action: Specify the correct table to use.

Validate on a partitioned table requires creation of the INTO table (like chained rows).

Solution

You must run the script utlvalid.sql from your $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin directory.
The utlvalid.sql script creates the table 'INVALID_ROWS'.

This script should be run as the same user who is issuing the analyze command.

Then you must issue the analyze command using this syntax:

SQL> analyze table partition () validate structure cascade into invalid_rows;

The analyze command can be issued with the 'online' option which will not lock the table.  However, be aware that this can cause some inconsistency/corruption as incorrect rows can be inserted into the invalid_rows table in some versions.  See document: Bug 16760013 - False inconsistency by ANALYZE TABLE VALIDATE STRUCTURE ONLINE in invalid_rows for PARTITION table (Doc ID 16760013.8)

SQL> analyze table partition () validate structure cascade online into invalid_rows;