sorry, my fault. i was looking at the same time the latest alpha version of the documentation that includes column renaming, but 10.2 not.
http://db.apache.org/derby/docs/dev/ref/ref-single.html#crefsqljrenamestatements > > then why it's described in the reference manual > > http://db.apache.org/derby/docs/10.2/ref/ref-single.html#crefsqljrenamestat > >ements > > This link does not describe renaming columns, but tables and indexes. > Renaming > tables works for me. cheers.