You can set a tablespace to automatically extend itself by a specified amount when it reaches its size limit. If you do not enable autoextend, then you are alerted when the tablespace reaches its critical or warning threshold size. The critical and warning threshold parameters have default values that you can change at any time. These parameters also cause alerts to be generated for autoextending tablespaces that are approaching their specified size limit. You can respond to size alerts by manually increasing the tablespace size. You do so by increasing the size of one or more of the tablespace data files or by adding another data file to the tablespace.
Note:
Although it is common to refer to tablespaces as autoextending, automatic extension is a data file property, not a tablespace property. That is, when you create the data files that comprise a tablespace, you indicate whether these data files automatically extend. A tablespace that has autoextending data files is considered to be an autoextending tablespace. You can specify a maximum size for an autoextending data file.