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Oracle9i Database Administrator's Guide
Release 2 (9.2)

Part Number A96521-01
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17
Managing Partitioned Tables and Indexes

This chapter describes various aspects of managing partitioned tables and indexes, and contains the following topics:

What Are Partitioned Tables and Indexes?

Today's enterprises frequently run mission critical databases containing upwards of several hundred gigabytes and, in many cases, several terabytes of data. These enterprises are challenged by the support and maintenance requirements of very large databases (VLDB), and must devise methods to meet those challenges.

One way to meet VLDB demands is to create and use partitioned tables and indexes. Partitioned tables allow your data to be broken down into smaller, more manageable pieces called partitions, or even subpartitions. Indexes can be partitioned in similar fashion. Each partition is stored in its own segment and can be managed individually. It can function independently of the other partitions, thus providing a structure that can be better tuned for availability and performance.

If you are using parallel execution, partitions provide another means of parallelization. Operations on partitioned tables and indexes are performed in parallel by assigning different parallel execution servers to different partitions of the table or index.

Partitions and subpartitions of a table or index all share the same logical attributes. For example, all partitions (or subpartitions) in a table share the same column and constraint definitions, and all partitions (or subpartitions) of an index share the same index options. They can, however, have different physical attributes (such as TABLESPACE).

Although you are not required to keep each table or index partition (or subpartition) in a separate tablespace, it is to your advantage to do so. Storing partitions in separate tablespaces enables you to:

Partitioning is transparent to existing applications and standard DML statements run against partitioned tables. However, an application can be programmed to take advantage of partitioning by using partition-extended table or index names in DML.

You can use the SQL*Loader, Import, and Export utilities to load or unload data stored in partitioned tables. These utilities are all partition and subpartition aware.

See Also:

Partitioning Methods

There are several partitioning methods offered by Oracle:

Indexes, as well as tables, can be partitioned. A global index can only be partitioned by range, but it can be defined on any type of partitioned, or nonpartitioned, table. It can require more maintenance than a local index.

A local index is constructed so that it reflects the structure of the underlying table. It is equipartitioned with the underlying table, meaning that it is partitioned on the same columns as the underlying table, creates the same number of partitions or subpartitions, and gives them the same partition bounds as corresponding partitions of the underlying table. For local indexes, index partitioning is maintained automatically when partitions are affected by maintenance activity. This ensures that the index remains equipartitioned with the underlying table.

The following sections can help you decide on a partitioning method appropriate for your needs:

When to Use the Range Partitioning Method

Use range partitioning to map rows to partitions based on ranges of column values. This type of partitioning is useful when dealing with data that has logical ranges into which it can be distributed; for example, months of the year. Performance is best when the data evenly distributes across the range. If partitioning by range causes partitions to vary dramatically in size because of unequal distribution, you may want to consider one of the other methods of partitioning.

When creating range partitions, you must specify:

The example below creates a table of four partitions, one for each quarter's sales. The columns sale_year, sale_month, and sale_day are the partitioning columns, while their values constitute a specific row's partitioning key. The VALUES LESS THAN clause determines the partition bound: rows with partitioning key values that compare less than the ordered list of values specified by the clause are stored in the partition. Each partition is given a name (sales_q1, sales_q2, ...), and each partition is contained in a separate tablespace (tsa, tsb, ...).

CREATE TABLE sales
    ( invoice_no NUMBER, 
      sale_year  INT NOT NULL,
      sale_month INT NOT NULL,
      sale_day   INT NOT NULL )
  PARTITION BY RANGE (sale_year, sale_month, sale_day)
    ( PARTITION sales_q1 VALUES LESS THAN (1999, 04, 01) 
        TABLESPACE tsa,
      PARTITION sales_q2 VALUES LESS THAN (1999, 07, 01) 
        TABLESPACE tsb,
      PARTITION sales_q3 VALUES LESS THAN (1999, 10, 01) 
        TABLESPACE tsc,
      PARTITION sales_q4 VALUES LESS THAN (2000, 01, 01) 
        TABLESPACE tsd ); 

A row with sale_year=1999, sale_month=8, and sale_day=1 has a partitioning key of (1999, 8, 1) and would be stored in partition sales_q3.

When to Use the Hash Partitioning Method

Use hash partitioning if your data does not easily lend itself to range partitioning, but you would like to partition for performance and manageability reasons. Hash partitioning provides a method of evenly distributing data across a specified number of partitions. Rows are mapped into partitions based on a hash value of the partitioning key. Creating and using hash partitions gives you a highly tunable method of data placement, because you can influence availability and performance by spreading these evenly sized partitions across I/O devices (striping).

To create hash partitions you specify the following:

The following example creates a hash-partitioned table. The partitioning column is id, four partitions are created and assigned system generated names, and they are placed in four named tablespaces (gear1, gear2, ...).

CREATE TABLE scubagear
     (id NUMBER,
      name VARCHAR2 (60))
   PARTITION BY HASH (id)
   PARTITIONS 4 
   STORE IN (gear1, gear2, gear3, gear4);

When to Use the List Partitioning Method

Use list partitioning when you require explicit control over how rows map to partitions. You can specify a list of discrete values for the partitioning column in the description for each partition. This is different from range partitioning, where a range of values is associated with a partition, and from hash partitioning, where the user has no control of the row to partition mapping.

The list partitioning method is specifically designed for modeling data distributions that follow discrete values. This cannot be easily done by range or hash partitioning because:

Further, list partitioning allows unordered and unrelated sets of data to be grouped and organized together very naturally.

Unlike the range and hash partitioning methods, multi-column partitioning is not supported for list partitioning. If a table is partitioned by list, the partitioning key can consist only of a single column of the table. Otherwise all columns that can be partitioned by the range or hash methods can be partitioned by the list partitioning method.

When creating list partitions, you must specify:

The following example creates a list-partitioned table. It creates table q1_sales_by_region which is partitioned by regions consisting of groups of states.

CREATE TABLE q1_sales_by_region
      (deptno number, 
       deptname varchar2(20),
       quarterly_sales number(10, 2),
       state varchar2(2))
   PARTITION BY LIST (state)
      (PARTITION q1_northwest VALUES ('OR', 'WA'),
       PARTITION q1_southwest VALUES ('AZ', 'UT', 'NM'),
       PARTITION q1_northeast VALUES  ('NY', 'VM', 'NJ'),
       PARTITION q1_southeast VALUES ('FL', 'GA'),
       PARTITION q1_northcentral VALUES ('SD', 'WI'),
       PARTITION q1_southcentral VALUES ('OK', 'TX'));

A row is mapped to a partition by checking whether the value of the partitioning column for a row matches a value in the value list that describes the partition.

For example, some sample rows are inserted as follows:

One of the interesting things to note about list partitioning is that there is no apparent sense of ordering between partitions (unlike range partitioning). You can also specify a default partition into which rows that do not map to any other partition are mapped. If a default partition were specified in the above example, the state CA would map to that partition.

When to Use the Composite Range-Hash Partitioning Method

Range-hash partitioning partitions data using the range method, and within each partition, subpartitions it using the hash method. These composite partitions are ideal for both historical data and striping, and provide improved manageability of range partitioning and data placement, as well as the parallelism advantages of hash partitioning.

When creating range-hash partitions, you specify the following:

The following statement creates a range-hash partitioned table. In this example, three range partitions are created, each containing eight subpartitions. Because the subpartitions are not named, system generated names are assigned, but the STORE IN clause distributes them across the 4 specified tablespaces (ts1, ...,ts4).

CREATE TABLE scubagear (equipno NUMBER, equipname VARCHAR(32), price NUMBER)
  PARTITION BY RANGE (equipno) SUBPARTITION BY HASH(equipname)
    SUBPARTITIONS 8 STORE IN (ts1, ts2, ts3, ts4)
      (PARTITION p1 VALUES LESS THAN (1000),
       PARTITION p2 VALUES LESS THAN (2000),
       PARTITION p3 VALUES LESS THAN (MAXVALUE));

The partitions of a range-hash partitioned table are logical structures only, as their data is stored in the segments of their subpartitions. As with partitions, these subpartitions share the same logical attributes. Unlike range partitions in a range-partitioned table, the subpartitions cannot have different physical attributes from the owning partition, although they are not required to reside in the same tablespace.

When to Use the Composite Range-List Partitioning Method

Like the composite range-hash partitioning method, the composite range-list partitioning method provides for partitioning based on a two level hierarchy. The first level of partitioning is based on a range of values, as for range partitioning; the second level is based on discrete values, as for list partitioning. This form of composite partitioning is well suited for historical data, but allows you to further group the rows of data based on unordered or unrelated column values.

When creating range-list partitions, you specify the following:

The following example illustrates how range-list partitioning might be used. The example tracks sales data of products by quarters and within each quarter, groups it by specified states.

CREATE TABLE quarterly_regional_sales
      (deptno number, item_no varchar2(20),
       txn_date date, txn_amount number, state varchar2(2))
  TABLESPACE ts4
  PARTITION BY RANGE (txn_date)
    SUBPARTITION BY LIST (state)
      (PARTITION q1_1999 VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('1-APR-1999','DD-MON-YYYY'))
         (SUBPARTITION q1_1999_northwest VALUES ('OR', 'WA'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_1999_southwest VALUES ('AZ', 'UT', 'NM'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_1999_northeast VALUES ('NY', 'VM', 'NJ'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_1999_southeast VALUES ('FL', 'GA'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_1999_northcentral VALUES ('SD', 'WI'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_1999_southcentral VALUES ('OK', 'TX')
         ),
       PARTITION q2_1999 VALUES LESS THAN ( TO_DATE('1-JUL-1999','DD-MON-YYYY'))
         (SUBPARTITION q2_1999_northwest VALUES ('OR', 'WA'),
          SUBPARTITION q2_1999_southwest VALUES ('AZ', 'UT', 'NM'),
          SUBPARTITION q2_1999_northeast VALUES ('NY', 'VM', 'NJ'),
          SUBPARTITION q2_1999_southeast VALUES ('FL', 'GA'),
          SUBPARTITION q2_1999_northcentral VALUES ('SD', 'WI'),
          SUBPARTITION q2_1999_southcentral VALUES ('OK', 'TX')
         ),
       PARTITION q3_1999 VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('1-OCT-1999','DD-MON-YYYY'))
         (SUBPARTITION q3_1999_northwest VALUES ('OR', 'WA'),
          SUBPARTITION q3_1999_southwest VALUES ('AZ', 'UT', 'NM'),
          SUBPARTITION q3_1999_northeast VALUES ('NY', 'VM', 'NJ'),
          SUBPARTITION q3_1999_southeast VALUES ('FL', 'GA'),
          SUBPARTITION q3_1999_northcentral VALUES ('SD', 'WI'),
          SUBPARTITION q3_1999_southcentral VALUES ('OK', 'TX')
         ),
       PARTITION q4_1999 VALUES LESS THAN ( TO_DATE('1-JAN-2000','DD-MON-YYYY'))
         (SUBPARTITION q4_1999_northwest VALUES ('OR', 'WA'),
          SUBPARTITION q4_1999_southwest VALUES ('AZ', 'UT', 'NM'),
          SUBPARTITION q4_1999_northeast VALUES ('NY', 'VM', 'NJ'),
          SUBPARTITION q4_1999_southeast VALUES ('FL', 'GA'),
          SUBPARTITION q4_1999_northcentral VALUES ('SD', 'WI'),
          SUBPARTITION q4_1999_southcentral VALUES ('OK', 'TX')
         )
      );

A row is mapped to a partition by checking whether the value of the partitioning column for a row falls within a specific partition range. The row is then mapped to a subpartition within that partition by identifying the subpartition whose descriptor value list contains a value matching the subpartition column value.

For example, some sample rows are inserted as follows:

The partitions of a range-list partitioned table are logical structures only, as their data is stored in the segments of their subpartitions. The list subpartitions have the same characteristics as list partitions. You can specify a default subpartition, just as you specify a default partition for list partitioning.

Creating Partitioned Tables

Creating a partitioned table or index is very similar to creating a non-partitioned table or index (as described in Chapter 15, "Managing Tables"), but you include a partitioning clause. The partitioning clause, and subclauses, that you include depend upon the type of partitioning you want to achieve.

You can partition both regular (heap organized) tables and index-organized tables, including those containing LOB columns. You can create nonpartitioned global indexes, range-partitioned global indexes, and local indexes on partitioned tables.

When you create (or alter) a partitioned table, a row movement clause, either ENABLE ROW MOVEMENT or DISABLE ROW MOVEMENT can be specified. This clause either enables or disables the migration of a row to a new partition if its key is updated. The default is DISABLE ROW MOVEMENT.

The following sections present details and examples of creating partitions for the various types of partitioned tables and indexes:

Creating Range-Partitioned Tables

The PARTITION BY RANGE clause of the CREATE TABLE statement specifies that the table is to be range-partitioned. The PARTITION clauses identify the individual partition ranges, and optional subclauses of a PARTITION clause can specify physical and other attributes specific to a partition's segment. If not overridden at the partition level, partitions inherit the attributes of their underlying table.

In this example, more complexity is added to the example presented earlier for a range-partitioned table. Storage parameters and a LOGGING attribute are specified at the table level. These replace the corresponding defaults inherited from the tablespace level for the table itself, and are inherited by the range partitions. However, since there was little business in the first quarter, the storage attributes for partition sales_q1 are made smaller. The ENABLE ROW MOVEMENT clause is specified to allow the migration of a row to a new partition if an update to a key value is made that would place the row in a different partition.

CREATE TABLE sales 
     ( invoice_no NUMBER,
       sale_year  INT NOT NULL,
       sale_month INT NOT NULL,
       sale_day   INT NOT NULL )
   STORAGE (INITIAL 100K NEXT 50K) LOGGING 
   PARTITION BY RANGE ( sale_year, sale_month, sale_day)
     ( PARTITION sales_q1 VALUES LESS THAN ( 1999, 04, 01 )
        TABLESPACE tsa STORAGE (INITIAL 20K, NEXT 10K),
       PARTITION sales_q2 VALUES LESS THAN ( 1999, 07, 01 )
        TABLESPACE tsb,
       PARTITION sales_q3 VALUES LESS THAN ( 1999, 10, 01 )
        TABLESPACE tsc,
       PARTITION sales q4 VALUES LESS THAN ( 2000, 01, 01 )
        TABLESPACE tsd)
   ENABLE ROW MOVEMENT;

The rules for creating range-partitioned global indexes are similar to those for creating range-partitioned tables. The following is an example of creating a range-partitioned global index on sales_month for the above table. Each index partition is named but is stored in the default tablespace for the index.

CREATE INDEX month_ix ON sales(sales_month)
   GLOBAL PARTITION BY RANGE(sales_month)
      (PARTITION pm1_ix VALUES LESS THAN (2)
       PARTITION pm2_ix VALUES LESS THAN (3)
       PARTITION pm3_ix VALUES LESS THAN (4)
       PARTITION pm4_ix VALUES LESS THAN (5)
       PARTITION pm5_ix VALUES LESS THAN (6)
       PARTITION pm6_ix VALUES LESS THAN (7)
       PARTITION pm7_ix VALUES LESS THAN (8)
       PARTITION pm8_ix VALUES LESS THAN (9)
       PARTITION pm9_ix VALUES LESS THAN (10)
       PARTITION pm10_ix VALUES LESS THAN (11)
       PARTITION pm11_ix VALUES LESS THAN (12)
       PARTITION pm12_ix VALUES LESS THAN (MAXVALUE));

Note:

If your enterprise has or will have databases using different character sets, use caution when partitioning on character columns, because the sort sequence of characters is not identical in all character sets. For more information, see Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide.


Creating Hash-Partitioned Tables

The PARTITION BY HASH clause of the CREATE TABLE statement identifies that the table is to be hash-partitioned. The PARTITIONS clause can then be used to specify the number of partitions to create, and optionally, the tablespaces to store them in. Alternatively, you can use PARTITION clauses to name the individual partitions and their tablespaces.

The only attribute you can specify for hash partitions is TABLESPACE. All of the hash partitions of a table must share the same segment attributes (except TABLESPACE), which are inherited from the table level.

The following examples illustrate two methods of creating a hash-partitioned table named dept. In the first example the number of partitions is specified, but system generated names are assigned to them and they are stored in the default tablespace of the table.

CREATE TABLE dept (deptno NUMBER, deptname VARCHAR(32))
     PARTITION BY HASH(deptno) PARTITIONS 16;

In this second example, names of individual partitions, and tablespaces in which they are to reside, are specified. The initial extent size for each hash partition (segment) is also explicitly stated at the table level, and all partitions inherit this attribute.

CREATE TABLE dept (deptno NUMBER, deptname VARCHAR(32))
     STORAGE (INITIAL 10K)
     PARTITION BY HASH(deptno)
       (PARTITION p1 TABLESPACE ts1, PARTITION p2 TABLESPACE ts2,
        PARTITION p3 TABLESPACE ts1, PARTITION p4 TABLESPACE ts3);

If you create a local index for the above table, Oracle constructs the index so that it is equipartitioned with the underlying table. Oracle also ensures that the index is maintained automatically when maintenance operations are performed on the underlying table. The following is an example of creating a local index on the table dept:

CREATE INDEX loc_dept_ix ON dept(deptno) LOCAL;

You can optionally name the hash partitions and tablespaces into which the local index partitions are to be stored, but if you do not do so, Oracle uses the name of the corresponding base partition as the index partition name, and stores the index partition in the same tablespace as the table partition.

Creating List-Partitioned Tables

The semantics for creating list partitions are very similar to those for creating range partitions. However, to create list partitions, you specify a PARTITION BY LIST clause in the CREATE TABLE statement, and the PARTITION clauses specify lists of literal values, which are the discrete values of the partitioning columns that qualify rows to be included in the partition. For list partitioning, the partitioning key can only be a single column name from the table.

Available only with list partitioning, you can use the keyword DEFAULT to describe the value list for a partition. This identifies a partition that will accommodate rows that do not map into any of the other partitions.

Like for range partitions, optional subclauses of a PARTITION clause can specify physical and other attributes specific to a partition's segment. If not overridden at the partition level, partitions inherit the attributes of their underlying table.

The following example creates table sales_by_region and partitions it using the list method. The first two PARTITION clauses specify physical attributes, which override the table-level defaults. The remaining PARTITION clauses do not specify attributes and those partitions inherit their physical attributes from table-level defaults. A default partition is specified.

CREATE TABLE sales_by_region (item# INTEGER, qty INTEGER, 
             store_name VARCHAR(30), state_code VARCHAR(2),
             sale_date DATE)
     STORAGE(INITIAL 10K NEXT 20K) TABLESPACE tbs5 
     PARTITION BY LIST (state_code) 
     (
     PARTITION region_east
        VALUES ('MA','NY','CT','NH','ME','MD','VA','PA','NJ')
        STORAGE (INITIAL 20K NEXT 40K PCTINCREASE 50) 
        TABLESPACE tbs8,
     PARTITION region_west
        VALUES ('CA','AZ','NM','OR','WA','UT','NV','CO')
        PCTFREE 25 NOLOGGING,
     PARTITION region_south
        VALUES ('TX','KY','TN','LA','MS','AR','AL','GA'),
     PARTITION region_central 
        VALUES ('OH','ND','SD','MO','IL','MI','IA'),
     PARTITION region_null
        VALUES (NULL),
     PARTITION region_unknown
        VALUES (DEFAULT)
     );

Creating Composite Range-Hash Partitioned Tables

To create a range-hash partitioned table, you start by using the PARTITION BY RANGE clause of a CREATE TABLE statement. Next, you specify a SUBPARTITION BY HASH clause that follows similar syntax and rules as the PARTITION BY HASH clause. The individual PARTITION and SUBPARTITION or SUBPARTITIONS clauses, and optionally a SUBPARTITION TEMPLATE clause, follow.

Attributes specified for a range partition apply to all subpartitions of that partition. You can specify different attributes for each range partition, and you can specify a STORE IN clause at the partition level if the list of tablespaces across which that partition's subpartitions should be spread is different from those of other partitions. All of this is illustrated in the following example.

CREATE TABLE emp (deptno NUMBER, empname VARCHAR(32), grade NUMBER)   
     PARTITION BY RANGE(deptno) SUBPARTITION BY HASH(empname)
        SUBPARTITIONS 8 STORE IN (ts1, ts3, ts5, ts7)
    (PARTITION p1 VALUES LESS THAN (1000) PCTFREE 40,
     PARTITION p2 VALUES LESS THAN (2000)
        STORE IN (ts2, ts4, ts6, ts8),
     PARTITION p3 VALUES LESS THAN (MAXVALUE)
       (SUBPARTITION p3_s1 TABLESPACE ts4,
        SUBPARTITION p3_s2 TABLESPACE ts5));

To learn how using a subpartition template can simplify the specification of a composite partitioned table, see "Using Subpartition Templates to Describe Composite Partitioned Tables".

The following statement is an example of creating a local index on the emp table where the index segments are spread across tablespaces ts7, ts8, and ts9.

CREATE INDEX emp_ix ON emp(deptno)
     LOCAL STORE IN (ts7, ts8, ts9);

This local index is equipartitioned with the base table as follows:

Creating Composite Range-List Partitioned Tables

The concept of range-list partitioning is similar to that of the other composite partitioning method, range-hash, but this time you specify that the subpartitions are to be list rather than hash. Specifically, after the CREATE TABLE ... PARTITION BY RANGE clause, you include a SUBPARTITION BY LIST clause that follows similar syntax and rules as the PARTITION BY LIST clause. The individual PARTITION and SUBPARTITION clauses, and optionally a SUBPARTITION TEMPLATE clause, follow.

The range partitions of the composite partitioned table are described as for noncomposite range partitioned tables. This allows that optional subclauses of a PARTITION clause can specify physical and other attributes, including tablespace, specific to a partition's segment. If not overridden at the partition level, partitions inherit the attributes of their underlying table.

The list subpartition's descriptions, in the SUBPARTITION clauses, are described as for noncomposite list partitions, except the only physical attribute that can be specified is a tablespace (optional). Subpartitions inherit all other physical attributes from the partition description.

The following example of creates a table that specifies a tablespace at the partition and subpartition levels. The number of subpartitions within each partition varies, and default subpartitions are specified.

CREATE TABLE sample_regional_sales
      (deptno number, item_no varchar2(20),
       txn_date date, txn_amount number, state varchar2(2))
  PARTITION BY RANGE (txn_date)
    SUBPARTITION BY LIST (state)
      (PARTITION q1_1999 VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('1-APR-1999','DD-MON-YYYY'))
          TABLESPACE tbs_1
         (SUBPARTITION q1_1999_northwest VALUES ('OR', 'WA'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_1999_southwest VALUES ('AZ', 'UT', 'NM'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_1999_northeast VALUES ('NY', 'VM', 'NJ'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_1999_southeast VALUES ('FL', 'GA'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_others VALUES (DEFAULT) TABLESPACE tbs_4
         ),
       PARTITION q2_1999 VALUES LESS THAN ( TO_DATE('1-JUL-1999','DD-MON-YYYY'))
          TABLESPACE tbs_2
         (SUBPARTITION q2_1999_northwest VALUES ('OR', 'WA'),
          SUBPARTITION q2_1999_southwest VALUES ('AZ', 'UT', 'NM'),
          SUBPARTITION q2_1999_northeast VALUES ('NY', 'VM', 'NJ'),
          SUBPARTITION q2_1999_southeast VALUES ('FL', 'GA'),
          SUBPARTITION q2_1999_northcentral VALUES ('SD', 'WI'),
          SUBPARTITION q2_1999_southcentral VALUES ('OK', 'TX')
         ),
       PARTITION q3_1999 VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('1-OCT-1999','DD-MON-YYYY'))
          TABLESPACE tbs_3
         (SUBPARTITION q3_1999_northwest VALUES ('OR', 'WA'),
          SUBPARTITION q3_1999_southwest VALUES ('AZ', 'UT', 'NM'),
          SUBPARTITION q3_others VALUES (DEFAULT) TABLESPACE tbs_4
         ),
       PARTITION q4_1999 VALUES LESS THAN ( TO_DATE('1-JAN-2000','DD-MON-YYYY'))
          TABLESPACE tbs_4
      );

This example results in the following subpartition descriptions:

To learn how using a subpartition template can simplify the specification of a composite partitioned table, see "Using Subpartition Templates to Describe Composite Partitioned Tables".

Using Subpartition Templates to Describe Composite Partitioned Tables

You can create subpartitions in a composite partitioned table using a subpartition template. A subpartition template simplifies the specification of subpartitions by not requiring that a subpartition descriptor be specified for every partition in the table. Instead, you describe subpartitions only once in a template, then apply that subpartition template to every partition in the table.

The subpartition template is used whenever a subpartition descriptor is not specified for a partition. If a subpartition descriptor is specified, then it is used instead of the subpartition template for that partition. If no subpartition template is specified, and no subpartition descriptor is supplied for a partition, then a single default subpartition is created.

Specifying a Subpartition Template for a Range-Hash Partitioned Table

In the case of range-hash partitioned tables, the subpartition template can describe the subpartitions in detail, or it can specify just the number of hash subpartitions.

The following example creates a range-hash partitioned table using a subpartition template:

CREATE TABLE emp_sub_template (deptno NUMBER, empname VARCHAR(32), grade NUMBER)   
     PARTITION BY RANGE(deptno) SUBPARTITION BY HASH(empname)
     SUBPARTITION TEMPLATE
         (SUBPARTITION a TABLESPACE ts1,
          SUBPARTITION b TABLESPACE ts2,
          SUBPARTITION c TABLESPACE ts3,
          SUBPARTITION d TABLESPACE ts4
         )
    (PARTITION p1 VALUES LESS THAN (1000),
     PARTITION p2 VALUES LESS THAN (2000),
     PARTITION p3 VALUES LESS THAN (MAXVALUE)
    );

This example produces the following table description:

The following query displays the subpartition names and tablespaces:

SQL> SELECT TABLESPACE_NAME, PARTITION_NAME, SUBPARTITION_NAME
  2  FROM DBA_TAB_SUBPARTITIONS WHERE TABLE_NAME='EMP_SUB_TEMPLATE'
  3  ORDER BY TABLESPACE_NAME;

TABLESPACE_NAME PARTITION_NAME  SUBPARTITION_NAME
--------------- --------------- ------------------
TS1             P1              P1_A
TS1             P2              P2_A
TS1             P3              P3_A
TS2             P1              P1_B
TS2             P2              P2_B
TS2             P3              P3_B
TS3             P1              P1_C
TS3             P2              P2_C
TS3             P3              P3_C
TS4             P1              P1_D
TS4             P2              P2_D
TS4             P3              P3_D

12 rows selected.

Specifying a Subpartition Template for a Range-List Partitioned Table

The following example, for a range-list partitioned table, illustrates how using a subpartition template can help you stripe data across tablespaces. In this example a table is created where the table subpartitions are vertically striped, meaning that subpartition n from every partition is in the same tablespace.

CREATE TABLE stripe_regional_sales
            ( deptno number, item_no varchar2(20),
              txn_date date, txn_amount number, state varchar2(2))
   PARTITION BY RANGE (txn_date)
   SUBPARTITION BY LIST (state)
   SUBPARTITION TEMPLATE 
      (SUBPARTITION northwest VALUES ('OR', 'WA') TABLESPACE tbs_1,
       SUBPARTITION southwest VALUES ('AZ', 'UT', 'NM') TABLESPACE tbs_2,
       SUBPARTITION northeast VALUES ('NY', 'VM', 'NJ') TABLESPACE tbs_3,
       SUBPARTITION southeast VALUES ('FL', 'GA') TABLESPACE tbs_4,
       SUBPARTITION midwest VALUES ('SD', 'WI') TABLESPACE tbs_5,
       SUBPARTITION south VALUES ('AL', 'AK') TABLESPACE tbs_6,
       SUBPARTITION others VALUES (DEFAULT ) TABLESPACE tbs_7
      )
  (PARTITION q1_1999 VALUES LESS THAN ( TO_DATE('01-APR-1999','DD-MON-YYYY')),
   PARTITION q2_1999 VALUES LESS THAN ( TO_DATE('01-JUL-1999','DD-MON-YYYY')),
   PARTITION q3_1999 VALUES LESS THAN ( TO_DATE('01-OCT-1999','DD-MON-YYYY')),
   PARTITION q4_1999 VALUES LESS THAN ( TO_DATE('1-JAN-2000','DD-MON-YYYY'))
  );

If you specified the tablespaces at the partition level (for example, tbs_1 for partition q1_1999, tbs_2 for partition q1_1999, tbs_3 for partition q3_1999, and tbs_4 for partition q4_1999) and not in the subpartition template, then the table would be horizontally striped. All subpartitions would be in the tablespace of the owning partition.

Creating Partitioned Index-Organized Tables

For index-organized tables, you can use the range or hash partitioning method. However, only range partitioned index-organized tables can contain columns with LOBs. The semantics for creating range or hash-partitioned index-organized tables is similar to that for regular tables with these differences:

Specifying an OVERFLOW clause results in the overflow data segments themselves being equi-partitioned with the primary key index segments. Thus, for partitioned index-organized tables with overflow, each partition has an index segment and an overflow data segment.

For index-organized tables, the set of partitioning columns must be a subset of the primary key columns. Since rows of an index-organized table are stored in the primary key index for the table, the partitioning criterion has an effect on the availability. By choosing the partition key to be a subset of the primary key, an insert operation only needs to verify uniqueness of the primary key in a single partition, thereby maintaining partition independence.

Support for secondary indexes on index-organized tables is similar to the support for regular tables, however, certain maintenance operations do not mark global indexes UNUSABLE, as is the case for regular tables.

See Also:

Creating Range-Partitioned Index-Organized Tables

You can partition index-organized tables, and their secondary indexes, by the range method. In the following example, a range-partitioned index-organized table sales is created. The INCLUDING clause specifies all columns after week_no are stored in an overflow segment. There is one overflow segment for each partition, all stored in the same tablespace (overflow_here). Optionally, OVERFLOW TABLESPACE could be specified at the individual partition level, in which case some or all of the overflow segments could have separate TABLESPACE attributes.

CREATE TABLE sales(acct_no NUMBER(5), 
                   acct_name CHAR(30), 
                   amount_of_sale NUMBER(6), 
                   week_no INTEGER,
                   sale_details VARCHAR2(1000),
             PRIMARY KEY (acct_no, acct_name, week_no)) 
     ORGANIZATION INDEX 
             INCLUDING week_no
             OVERFLOW TABLESPACE overflow_here
     PARTITION BY RANGE (week_no)
            (PARTITION VALUES LESS THAN (5) 
                   TABLESPACE ts1,
             PARTITION VALUES LESS THAN (9) 
                   TABLESPACE ts2 OVERFLOW TABLESPACE overflow_ts2,
             ...
             PARTITION VALUES LESS THAN (MAXVALUE) 
                   TABLESPACE ts13);

Creating Hash-Partitioned Index-Organized Tables

The other option for partitioning index-organized tables is to use the hash method. In the following example the index-organized table, sales, is partitioned by the hash method.

CREATE TABLE sales(acct_no NUMBER(5), 
                   acct_name CHAR(30), 
                   amount_of_sale NUMBER(6), 
                   week_no INTEGER,
                   sale_details VARCHAR2(1000),
             PRIMARY KEY (acct_no, acct_name, week_no)) 
     ORGANIZATION INDEX 
             INCLUDING week_no
     OVERFLOW
          PARTITION BY HASH (week_no)
             PARTITIONS 16
             STORE IN (ts1, ts2, ts3, ts4)
             OVERFLOW STORE IN (ts3, ts6, ts9);

Note:

Since a well designed hash function is supposed to distribute rows in a well balanced fashion among the partitions, updating the primary key column(s) of a row is very likely to move that row to a different partition. Therefore it is recommended that a hash-partitioned index-organized table with a changeable partitioning key be created with the ROW MOVEMENT ENABLE clause explicitly specified. The default is that ROW MOVEMENT ENABLE is disabled.


Partitioning Restrictions for Multiple Block Sizes

Use caution when creating partitioned objects in a database with tablespaces of multiple block size. The storage of partitioned objects in such tablespaces is subject to some restrictions. Specifically, all partitions of the following entities must reside in tablespaces of the same block size:

Therefore:

When you create or alter a partitioned table or index, all tablespaces you explicitly specify for the partitions and subpartitions of each entity must be of the same block size. If you do not explicitly specify tablespace storage for an entity, the tablespaces Oracle uses by default must be of the same block size. Therefore you must be aware of the default tablespaces at each level of the partitioned object.

Maintaining Partitioned Tables

This section describes how to perform partition and subpartition maintenance operations for both tables and indexes.

Table 17-1 lists maintenance operations that can be performed on table partitions (or subpartitions) and, for each type of partitioning, lists the specific clause of the ALTER TABLE statement that is used to perform that maintenance operation.

Table 17-1 ALTER TABLE Maintenance Operations for Table Partitions (Page 1 of 2)
Maintenance Operation Range Hash List Composite: Range/Hash Composite: Range/List

Adding Partitions

ADD PARTITION

ADD PARTITION

ADD PARTITION

ADD PARTITION

MODIFY PARTITION...ADD SUBPARTITION

ADD PARTITION

MODIFY PARTITION...ADD SUBPARTITION

Coalescing Partitions

n/a

COALESCE PARTITION

n/a

MODIFY PARTITION... COALESCE SUBPARTITION

n/a

Dropping Partitions

DROP PARTITION

n/a

DROP PARTITION

DROP PARTITION

DROP PARTITION

DROP SUBPARTITION

Exchanging Partitions

EXCHANGE PARTITION

EXCHANGE PARTITION

EXCHANGE PARTITION

EXCHANGE PARTITION

EXCHANGE SUBPARTITION

EXCHANGE PARTITION

EXCHANGE SUBPARTITION

Merging Partitions

MERGE PARTITIONS

n/a

MERGE PARTITIONS

MERGE PARTITIONS

MERGE PARTITIONS

MERGE SUBPARTITIONS

Modifying Default Attributes

MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES

MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES

MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES

MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES

MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES FOR PARTITION

MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES

MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES FOR PARTITION

Modifying Real Attributes of Partitions

MODIFY PARTITION

MODIFY PARTITION

MODIFY PARTITION

MODIFY PARTITION

MODIFY SUBPARTITION

MODIFY PARTITION

MODIFY SUBPARTITION

Modifying List Partitions: Adding Values

n/a

n/a

MODIFY PARTITION...ADD VALUES

n/a

MODIFY SUBPARTITION... ADD VALUES

Modifying List Partitions: Dropping Values

n/a

n/a

MODIFY PARTITION...DROP VALUES

n/a

MODIFY SUBPARTITION... DROP VALUES

Modifying a Subpartition Template

n/a

n/a

n/a

SET SUBPARTITION TEMPLATE

SET SUBPARTITION TEMPLATE

Moving Partitions

MOVE PARTITION

MOVE PARTITION

MOVE PARTITION

MOVE SUBPARTITION

MOVE SUBPARTITION

Renaming Partitions

RENAME PARTITION

RENAME PARTITION

RENAME PARTITION

RENAME PARTITION

RENAME SUBPARTITION

RENAME PARTITION

RENAME SUBPARTITION

Splitting Partitions

SPLIT PARTITION

n/a

SPLIT PARTITION

SPLIT PARTITION

SPLIT PARTITION

SPLIT SUBPARTITION

Truncating Partitions

TRUNCATE PARTITION

TRUNCATE PARTITION

TRUNCATE PARTITION

TRUNCATE PARTITION

TRUNCATE SUBPARTITION

TRUNCATE PARTITION

TRUNCATE SUBPARTITION


Note:

The first time you introduce a compressed partition into a partitioned table that has bitmap indexes and that currently contains only uncompressed partitions, you must do the following:

  • Either drop all existing bitmap indexes and bitmap index partitions, or mark them UNUSABLE.
  • Set the compression attribute.
  • Rebuild the indexes.

These actions are independent of whether any partitions contain data and of the operation that introduces the compressed partition.

This does not apply partitioned tables with B-tree indexes.

For more information, see the Oracle9i Data Warehousing Guide.


Table 17-2 lists maintenance operations that can be performed on index partitions, and indicates on which type of index (global or local) they can be performed. The ALTER INDEX clause used for the maintenance operation is shown.

Global indexes do not reflect the structure of the underlying table, and if partitioned, they can only be partitioned by range. Range-partitioned indexes share some, but not all, of the partition maintenance operations that can be performed on range-partitioned tables.

Because local indexes reflect the underlying structure of the table, partitioning is maintained automatically when table partitions and subpartitions are affected by maintenance activity. Therefore, partition maintenance on local indexes is less necessary and there are fewer options.

Table 17-2 ALTER INDEX Maintenance Operations for Index Partitions 
Maintenance Operation Type of Index Type of Index Partitioning
Range Hash and List Composite

Dropping Index Partitions

Global

DROP PARTITION

-

-

Local

n/a

n/a

n/a

Modifying Default Attributes of Index Partitions

Global

MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES

-

-

Local

MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES

MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES

MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES

MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES FOR PARTITION

Modifying Real Attributes of Index Partitions

Global

MODIFY PARTITION

-

-

Local

MODIFY PARTITION

MODIFY PARTITION

MODIFY PARTITION

MODIFY SUBPARTITION

Rebuilding Index Partitions

Global

REBUILD PARTITION

-

-

Local

REBUILD PARTITION

REBUILD PARTITION

REBUILD SUBPARTITION

Renaming Index Partitions

Global

RENAME PARTITION

-

-

Local

RENAME PARTITION

RENAME PARTITION

RENAME PARTITION

RENAME SUBPARTITION

Splitting Index Partitions

Global

SPLIT PARTITION

-

-

Local

n/a

n/a

n/a


Note:

The following sections discuss maintenance operations on partitioned tables. Where the usability of indexes or index partitions affected by the maintenance operation is discussed, consider the following:

  • Only indexes and index partitions that are not empty are candidates for being marked UNUSABLE. If they are empty, the USABLE/UNUSABLE status is left unchained.
  • Only indexes or index partitions with USABLE status are updated by subsequent DML.

Updating Global Indexes Automatically

Before discussing the individual maintenance operations for partitioned tables and indexes, it is important to discuss the effects of the UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES clause that can be specified in the ALTER TABLE statement.

By default, many table maintenance operations on partitioned tables invalidate (mark UNUSABLE) global indexes. You must then rebuild the entire global index or, if partitioned, all of its partitions. Oracle enables you to override this default behavior if you specify UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES in your ALTER TABLE statement for the maintenance operation. Specifying this clause tells Oracle to update the global index at the time it executes the maintenance operation DDL statement. This provides the following benefits:

But also consider the following performance implications when you specify UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES:

The following operations support the UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES clause:

Adding Partitions

This section describes how to add new partitions to a partitioned table and explains why partitions cannot be specifically added to global partitioned or local indexes.

Adding a Partition to a Range-Partitioned Table

Use the ALTER TABLE ... ADD PARTITION statement to add a new partition to the "high" end (the point after the last existing partition). To add a partition at the beginning or in the middle of a table, use the SPLIT PARTITION clause.

For example, consider the table, sales, which contains data for the current month in addition to the previous 12 months. On January 1, 1999, you add a partition for January, which is stored in tablespace tsx.

ALTER TABLE sales 
      ADD PARTITION jan96 VALUES LESS THAN ( '01-FEB-1999' )
      TABLESPACE tsx;

Local and global indexes associated with the range-partitioned table remain usable.

Adding a Partition to a Hash-Partitioned Table

When you add a partition to a hash-partitioned table, Oracle populates the new partition with rows rehashed from an existing partition (selected by Oracle) as determined by the hash function.

The following statements show two ways of adding a hash partition to table scubagear. Choosing the first statement adds a new hash partition whose partition name is system generated, and which is placed in the table's default tablespace. The second statement also adds a new hash partition, but that partition is explicitly named p_named and is created in tablespace gear5.

ALTER TABLE scubagear ADD PARTITION;

ALTER TABLE scubagear
      ADD PARTITION p_named TABLESPACE gear5;

Indexes may be marked UNUSABLE as explained in the following table:

Table Type Index Behavior

Regular (Heap)

  • The local indexes for the new partition, and for the existing partition from which rows were redistributed, are marked UNUSABLE and must be rebuilt.
  • Unless you specify UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES, all global indexes, or all partitions of partitioned global indexes, are marked UNUSABLE and must be rebuilt.

Index-organized

  • For local indexes, the behavior is the same as for heap tables.
  • All global indexes remain usable.

Adding a Partition to a List-Partitioned Table

The following statement illustrates adding a new partition to a list-partitioned table. In this example physical attributes and NOLOGGING are specified for the partition being added.

ALTER TABLE q1_sales_by_region 
   ADD PARTITION q1_nonmainland VALUES ('HI', 'PR')
      STORAGE (INITIAL 20K NEXT 20K) TABLESPACE tbs_3
      NOLOGGING;

Any value in the set of literal values that describe the partition being added must not exist in any of the other partitions of the table.

You cannot add a partition to a list-partitioned table that has a default partition, but you can split the default partition. By doing so, you effectively create a new partition defined by the values that you specify, and a second partition that remains the default partition.

Local and global indexes associated with the list-partitioned table remain usable.

Adding Partitions to a Range-Hash Partitioned Table

Partitions can be added at both the range partition level and the hash subpartition level.

Adding a Partition to a Range-Hash Partitioned Table

Adding a new range partition to a range-hash partitioned table is as described previously in "Adding a Partition to a Range-Partitioned Table". However, you can specify a SUBPARTITIONS clause that allows you to add a specified number of subpartitions, or a SUBPARTITION clause for naming specific subpartitions. If no SUBPARTITIONS or SUBPARTITION clause is specified, the partition inherits table level defaults for subpartitions.

This example adds a range partition q1_2000 to table sales, which will be populated with data for the first quarter of the year 2000. There are eight subpartitions stored in tablespace tbs5.

ALTER TABLE sales ADD PARTITION q1_2000
      VALUES LESS THAN (2000, 04, 01)
      SUBPARTITIONS 8 STORE IN tbs5;
Adding a Subpartition to a Range-Hash Partitioned Table

You use the MODIFY PARTITION ... ADD SUBPARTITION clause of the ALTER TABLE statement to add a hash subpartition to a range-hash partitioned table. The newly added subpartition is populated with rows rehashed from other subpartitions of the same partition as determined by the hash function.

In the following example, a new hash subpartition us_loc5, stored in tablespace us1, is added to range partition locations_us in table diving.

ALTER TABLE diving MODIFY PARTITION locations_us
      ADD SUBPARTITION us_locs5 TABLESPACE us1;

Local index subpartitions corresponding to the added and rehashed subpartitions must be rebuilt. Unless you specify UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES, all global indexes, or all partitions of partitioned global indexes, are marked UNUSABLE and must be rebuilt.

Adding Partitions to a Range-List Partitioned Table

Partitions can be added at both the range partition level and the list subpartition level.

Adding a Partition to a Range-List Partitioned Table

Adding a new range partition to a range-list partitioned table is as described previously in "Adding a Partition to a Range-Partitioned Table". However, you can specify SUBPARTITION clauses for naming and providing value lists for the subpartitions. If no SUBPARTITION clauses are specified, then the partition inherits the subpartition template. If there is no subpartition template, then a single default subpartition is created.

This following statement statements adds a new partition to the quarterly_regional_sales table that is partitioned by the range-list method. Some new physical attributes are specified for this new partition while table-level defaults are inherited for those that are not specified.

ALTER TABLE quarterly_regional_sales 
   ADD PARTITION q1_2000 VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('1-APR-2000','DD-MON-YYYY'))
      STORAGE (INITIAL 20K NEXT 20K) TABLESPACE ts3 NOLOGGING
         (
          SUBPARTITION q1_2000_northwest VALUES ('OR', 'WA'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_2000_southwest VALUES ('AZ', 'UT', 'NM'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_2000_northeast VALUES ('NY', 'VM', 'NJ'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_2000_southeast VALUES ('FL', 'GA'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_2000_northcentral VALUES ('SD', 'WI'),
          SUBPARTITION q1_2000_southcentral VALUES ('OK', 'TX')
         );
Adding a Subpartition to a Range-List Partitioned Table

You use the MODIFY PARTITION ... ADD SUBPARTITION clause of the ALTER TABLE statement to add a list subpartition to a range-list partitioned table.

The following statement adds a new subpartition to the existing set of subpartitions in range-list partitioned table quarterly_regional_sales. The new subpartition is created in tablespace ts2.

ALTER TABLE quarterly_regional_sales
   MODIFY PARTITION q1_1999 
      ADD SUBPARTITION q1_1999_south
         VALUES ('AR','MS','AL') tablespace ts2;

Adding Index Partitions

You cannot explicitly add a partition to a local index. Instead, a new partition is added to a local index only when you add a partition to the underlying table. Specifically, when there is a local index defined on a table and you issue the ALTER TABLE statement to add a partition, a matching partition is also added to the local index. Oracle assigns names and default physical storage attributes to the new index partitions, but you can rename or alter them after the ADD PARTITION operation is complete.

You can effectively specify a new tablespace for an index partition in an ADD PARTITION operation by first modifying the default attributes for the index. For example, assume that a local index, q1_sales_by_region_locix, was created for list partitioned table q1_sales_by_region. If before adding the new partition q1_nonmainland, as shown in "Adding a Partition to a List-Partitioned Table", you had issued the following statement, then the corresponding index partition would be created in tablespace tbs_4.

ALTER INDEX q1_sales_by_region_locix
   MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES TABLESPACE tbs_4;

Otherwise, it would be necessary for you to use the following statement to move the index partition to tbs_4 after adding it:

ALTER INDEX q1_sales_by_region_locix 
   REBUILD PARTITION q1_nonmainland TABLESPACE tbs_4;
 

You cannot add a partition to a global index because the highest partition always has a partition bound of MAXVALUE. If you want to add a new highest partition, use the ALTER INDEX ... SPLIT PARTITION statement.

Coalescing Partitions

Coalescing partitions is a way of reducing the number of partitions in a hash-partitioned table, or the number of subpartitions in a range-hash partitioned table. When a hash partition is coalesced, its contents are redistributed into one or more remaining partitions determined by the hash function. The specific partition that is coalesced is selected by Oracle, and is dropped after its contents have been redistributed.

Indexes may be marked UNUSABLE as explained in the following table:

Table Type Index Behavior

Regular (Heap)

  • Any local index partition corresponding to the selected partition is also dropped. Local index partitions corresponding to the one or more absorbing partitions are marked UNUSABLE and must be rebuilt.
  • Unless you specify UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES, all global indexes, or all partitions of partitioned global indexes, are marked UNUSABLE and must be rebuilt.

Index-organized

  • Some local indexes are marked UNUSABLE as noted above.
  • All global indexes remain usable.

Coalescing a Partition in a Hash-Partitioned Table

The ALTER TABLE ... COALESCE PARTITION statement is used to coalesce a partition in a hash-partitioned table. The following statement reduces by one the number of partitions in a table by coalescing a partition.

ALTER TABLE ouu1
     COALESCE PARTITION;

Coalescing a Subpartition in a Range-Hash Partitioned Table

The following statement distributes the contents of a subpartition of partition us_locations into one or more remaining subpartitions (determined by the hash function) of the same partition. Basically, this operation is the inverse of the MODIFY PARTITION ... ADD SUBPARTITION clause discussed in "Adding a Subpartition to a Range-Hash Partitioned Table".

ALTER TABLE diving MODIFY PARTITION us_locations
     COALESCE SUBPARTITION;

Dropping Partitions

You can drop partitions from range, composite, list, or composite range-list partitioned tables. For hash-partitioned tables, or hash subpartitions of range-hash partitioned tables, you must perform a coalesce operation instead.

Dropping a Table Partition

Use one of the following statements to drop a table partition or subpartition:

If you want to preserve the data in the partition, use the MERGE PARTITION statement instead of the DROP PARTITION statement.

If there are local indexes defined for the table, this statement also drops the matching partition or subpartitions from the local index. All global indexes, or all partitions of partitioned global indexes, are marked UNUSABLE unless either of the following are true:

The following sections contain some scenarios for dropping table partitions.

Dropping a Partition from a Table that Contains Data and Global Indexes

If the partition contains data and one or more global indexes are defined on the table, use one of the following methods to drop the table partition.

Method 1:

Leave the global indexes in place during the ALTER TABLE ... DROP PARTITION statement. Afterward, you must rebuild any global indexes (whether partitioned or not) because the index (or index partitions) will have been marked UNUSABLE. The following statements provide and example of dropping partition dec98 from the sales table, then rebuilding its global nonpartitioned index.

ALTER TABLE sales DROP PARTITION dec98;
ALTER INDEX sales_area_ix REBUILD;

If index sales_area_ix were a range-partitioned global index, then all partitions of the index would require rebuilding. Further, it is not possible to rebuild all partitions of an index in one statement. You must write a separate REBUILD statement for each partition in the index. The following statements rebuild the index partitions jan99_ix, feb99_ix, mar99_ix, ..., dec99_ix.

ALTER INDEX sales_area_ix REBUILD PARTITION jan99_ix;
ALTER INDEX sales_area_ix REBUILD PARTITION feb99_ix;
ALTER INDEX sales_area_ix REBUILD PARTITION mar99_ix;
...
ALTER INDEX sales_area_ix REBUILD PARTITION nov99_ix;

This method is most appropriate for large tables where the partition being dropped contains a significant percentage of the total data in the table.

Method 2:

Issue the DELETE statement to delete all rows from the partition before you issue the ALTER TABLE ... DROP PARTITION statement. The DELETE statement updates the global indexes, and also fires triggers and generates redo and undo logs.

For example, to drop the first partition, which has a partition bound of 10000, issue the following statements:

DELETE FROM sales WHERE TRANSID < 10000;
ALTER TABLE sales DROP PARTITION dec98;

This method is most appropriate for small tables, or for large tables when the partition being dropped contains a small percentage of the total data in the table.

Method 3:

Specify UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES in the ALTER TABLE statement. This causes the global index to be updated at the time the partition is dropped.

ALTER TABLE sales DROP PARTITION dec98
     UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES;
Dropping a Partition Containing Data and Referential Integrity Constraints

If a partition contains data and the table has referential integrity constraints, choose either of the following methods to drop the table partition. This table has a local index only, so it is not necessary to rebuild any indexes.

Method 1:

Disable the integrity constraints, issue the ALTER TABLE ... DROP PARTITION statement, then enable the integrity constraints:

ALTER TABLE sales
   DISABLE CONSTRAINT dname_sales1;
ALTER TABLE sales DROP PARTITTION dec98;
ALTER TABLE sales
   ENABLE CONSTRAINT dname_sales1;

This method is most appropriate for large tables where the partition being dropped contains a significant percentage of the total data in the table.

Method 2:

Issue the DELETE statement to delete all rows from the partition before you issue the ALTER TABLE ... DROP PARTITION statement. The DELETE statement enforces referential integrity constraints, and also fires triggers and generates redo and undo log.

DELETE FROM sales WHERE TRANSID < 10000;
ALTER TABLE sales DROP PARTITION dec94;

This method is most appropriate for small tables or for large tables when the partition being dropped contains a small percentage of the total data in the table.

Dropping Index Partitions

You cannot explicitly drop a partition of a local index. Instead, local index partitions are dropped only when you drop a partition from the underlying table.

If a global index partition is empty, you can explicitly drop it by issuing the ALTER INDEX ... DROP PARTITION statement. But, if a global index partition contains data, dropping the partition causes the next highest partition to be marked UNUSABLE. For example, you would like to drop the index partition P1, and P2 is the next highest partition. You must issue the following statements:

ALTER INDEX npr DROP PARTITION P1;
ALTER INDEX npr REBUILD PARTITION P2;

Note:

You cannot drop the highest partition in a global index.


Exchanging Partitions

You can convert a partition (or subpartition) into a nonpartitioned table, and a nonpartitioned table into a partition (or subpartition) of a partitioned table by exchanging their data segments. You can also convert a hash-partitioned table into a partition of a range-hash partitioned table, or convert the partition of the range-hash partitioned table into a hash-partitioned table. Similarly, you can convert a list-partitioned table into a partition of a range-list partitioned table, or convert the partition of the range-list partitioned table into a list-partitioned table

Exchanging table partitions is most useful when you have an application using nonpartitioned tables that you want to convert to partitions of a partitioned table. For example, you could already have partition views that you want to migrate into partitioned tables. Exchanging partitions also facilitates high-speed data loading when used with transportable tablespaces.

When you exchange partitions, logging attributes are preserved. You can optionally specify if local indexes are also to be exchanged (INCLUDING INDEXES clause), and if rows are to be validated for proper mapping (WITH VALIDATION clause).


Note:

When you specify WITHOUT VALIDATION for the exchange partition operation, this is normally a fast operation because it involves only data dictionary updates. However, if the table or partitioned table involved in the exchange operation has a primary key or unique constraint enabled, then the exchange operation will be performed as if WITH VALIDATION were specified. This is in order to maintain the integrity of the constraints.

To avoid the overhead of this validation activity, issue the following statement for each constraint before doing the exchange partition operation:

ALTER TABLE table_name 
     DISABLE CONSTRAINT constraint_name KEEP INDEX

Then, enable the constraints after the exchange.


Unless you specify UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES (this cannot be specified for index-organized tables), Oracle marks UNUSABLE the global indexes, or all global index partitions, on the table whose partition is being exchanged. Any global indexes, or global index partitions, on the table being exchanged are marked UNUSABLE.

See Also:

Exchanging a Range, Hash, or List Partition

To exchange a partition of a range, hash, or list-partitioned table with a nonpartitioned table, or the reverse, use the ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION statement. An example of converting a partition into a nonpartitioned table follows. In this example, table stocks can be range, hash, or list partitioned.

ALTER TABLE stocks
    EXCHANGE PARTITION p3 WITH stock_table_3;

Exchanging a Hash-Partitioned Table with a Range-Hash Partition

In this example, you are exchanging a whole hash-partitioned table, with all of its partitions, with a range-hash partitioned table's range partition and all of its hash subpartitions. This is illustrated in the following example.

First, create a hash-partitioned table:

CREATE TABLE t1 (i NUMBER, j NUMBER)
     PARTITION BY HASH(i)
       (PARTITION p1, PARTITION p2);

Populate the table, then create a range-hash partitioned table as shown:

CREATE TABLE t2 (i NUMBER, j NUMBER)
     PARTITION BY RANGE(j)
     SUBPARTITION BY HASH(i)
        (PARTITION p1 VALUES LESS THAN (10)
            SUBPARTITION t2_pls1
            SUBPARTITION t2_pls2,
         PARTITION p2 VALUES LESS THAN (20)
            SUBPARTITION t2_p2s1
            SUBPARTITION t2_p2s2));

It is important that the partitioning key in table t1 is the same as the subpartitioning key in table t2.

To migrate the data in t1 to t2, and validate the rows, use the following statement:

ALTER TABLE t1 EXCHANGE PARTITION p1 WITH TABLE t2
     WITH VALIDATION;

Exchanging a Subpartition of a Range-Hash Partitioned Table

Use the ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE SUBPARTITION statement to convert a hash subpartition of a range-hash partitioned table into a nonpartitioned table, or the reverse. The following example converts the subpartition q3_1999_s1 of table sales into the nonpartitioned table q3_1999. Local index partitions are exchanged with corresponding indexes on q3_1999.

ALTER TABLE sales EXCHANGE SUBPARTITION q3_1999_s1
      WITH TABLE q3_1999 INCLUDING INDEXES;

Exchanging a List-Partitioned Table with a Range-List Partition

The semantics of the ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION statement are the same as described previously in "Exchanging a Hash-Partitioned Table with a Range-Hash Partition". In the example shown there, the syntax of the CREATE TABLE statements would only need to be modified to create a list-partitioned table and a range-list partitioned table, respectively. The actions involved remain the same.

Exchanging a Subpartition of a Range-List Partitioned Table

The semantics of the ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE SUBPARTITION are the same as described previously in "Exchanging a Subpartition of a Range-Hash Partitioned Table".

Merging Partitions

Use the ALTER TABLE ... MERGE PARTITIONS statement to merge the contents of two partitions into one partition. The two original partitions are dropped, as are any corresponding local indexes.

You cannot use this statement for a hash-partitioned table or for hash subpartitions of a range-hash partitioned table.

Unless the involved partitions or subpartitions are empty, indexes may be marked UNUSABLE as explained in the following table:

Table Type Index Behavior

Regular (Heap)

  • Oracle marks UNUSABLE all resulting corresponding local index partitions or subpartitions.
  • Unless you specify UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES, all global indexes, or all partitions of partitioned global indexes, are marked UNUSABLE and must be rebuilt.

Index-organized

  • Oracle marks UNUSABLE all resulting corresponding local index partitions or subpartitions.
  • All global indexes remain usable.

Merging Range Partitions

You are allowed to merge the contents of two adjacent range partitions into one partition. Non adjacent range partitions cannot be merged. The resulting partition inherits the higher upper bound of the two merged partitions.

One reason for merging range partitions is to keep historical data online in larger partitions. For example, you can have daily partitions, with the oldest partition rolled up into weekly partitions, which can then be rolled up into monthly partitions, and so on.

The following scripts create an example of merging range partitions.

First, create a partitioned table and create local indexes.

-- Create a Table with four partitions each on its own tablespace
-- Partitioned by range on the data column.
--
CREATE TABLE four_seasons
( 
        one DATE,
        two VARCHAR2(60),
        three NUMBER
)
PARTITION  BY RANGE ( one ) 
(
PARTITION quarter_one 
   VALUES LESS THAN ( TO_DATE('01-apr-1998','dd-mon-yyyy'))
   TABLESPACE quarter_one,
PARTITION quarter_two 
   VALUES LESS THAN ( TO_DATE('01-jul-1998','dd-mon-yyyy'))
   TABLESPACE quarter_two,
PARTITION quarter_three
   VALUES LESS THAN ( TO_DATE('01-oct-1998','dd-mon-yyyy'))
   TABLESPACE quarter_three,
PARTITION quarter_four
   VALUES LESS THAN ( TO_DATE('01-jan-1999','dd-mon-yyyy'))
   TABLESPACE quarter_four
);
-- 
-- Create local PREFIXED index on Four_Seasons
-- Prefixed because the leftmost columns of the index match the
-- Partition key 
--
CREATE INDEX i_four_seasons_l ON four_seasons ( one,two ) 
LOCAL ( 
PARTITION i_quarter_one TABLESPACE i_quarter_one,
PARTITION i_quarter_two TABLESPACE i_quarter_two,
PARTITION i_quarter_three TABLESPACE i_quarter_three,
PARTITION i_quarter_four TABLESPACE i_quarter_four
);

Next, merge partitions.

--
-- Merge the first two partitions 
--
ALTER TABLE four_seasons 
MERGE PARTITIONS quarter_one, quarter_two INTO PARTITION quarter_two;

Then, rebuild the local index for the affected partition.

-- Rebuild index for quarter_two, which has been marked unusable 
-- because it has not had all of the data from Q1 added to it.
-- Rebuilding the index will correct this.
--
ALTER TABLE four_seasons MODIFY PARTITION 
quarter_two REBUILD UNUSABLE LOCAL INDEXES;

Merging List Partitions

When you merge list partitions, the partitions being merged can be any two partitions. They do not need to be adjacent, as for range partitions, since list partitioning does not assume any order for partitions. The resulting partition consists of all of the data from the original two partitions. If you merge a default list partition with any other partition, the resulting partition will be the default partition.

The statement below merges two partitions of a table partitioned using the list method into a partition that inherits all of its attributes from the table-level default attributes, except for PCTFREE and MAXEXTENTS, which are specified in the statement.

ALTER TABLE q1_sales_by_region 
   MERGE PARTITIONS q1_northcentral, q1_southcentral 
   INTO PARTITION q1_central 
      PCTFREE 50 STORAGE(MAXEXTENTS 20);

The value lists for the two original partitions were specified as:

PARTITION q1_northcentral VALUES ('SD','WI')
PARTITION q1_southcentral VALUES ('OK','TX')

The resulting sales_west partition's value list comprises the set that represents the union of these two partition value lists, or specifically:

Merging Range-Hash Partitions

When you merge range-hash partitions, the subpartitions are rehashed into either the number of subpartitions specified in a SUBPARTITIONS or SUBPARTITION clause, or, if no such clause is included, table-level defaults are used.

Note that the inheritance of properties is different when a range-hash partition is split (discussed in "Splitting a Range-Hash Partition"), verses when two range-hash partitions are merged. When a partition is split, the new partitions can inherit properties from the original partition since there is only one parent. However, when partitions are merged, properties must be inherited from table level defaults because there are two parents and the new partition cannot inherit from either at the expense of the other.

The following example merges two range-hash partitions:

ALTER TABLE all_seasons
   MERGE PARTITIONS quarter_1, quarter_2 INTO PARTITION quarter_2
   SUBPARTITIONS 8;

Merging Range-List Partitions

Partitions can be merged at the range partition level and subpartitions can be merged at the list subpartition level.

Merging Partitions in a Range-List Partitioned Table

Merging range partitions in a range-list partitioned table is as described previously in "Merging Range Partitions". However, when you merge two range-list partitions, the resulting new partition inherits the subpartition descriptions from the subpartition template, if one exists. If no subpartition template exists, then a single default subpartition is created for the new partition.

This following statement merges two partitions in the range-list partitioned stripe_regional_sales table. A subpartition template exists for the table.

ALTER TABLE stripe_regional_sales
   MERGE PARTITIONS q1_1999, q2_1999 INTO PARTITION q1_q2_1999
      PCTFREE 50 STORAGE(MAXEXTENTS 20);

Some new physical attributes are specified for this new partition while table-level defaults are inherited for those that are not specified. The new resulting partition q1_q2_1999 inherits the high-value bound of the partition q2_1999 and the subpartition value-list descriptions from the subpartition template description of the table.

The data in the resulting partitions consists of data from both the partitions. However, there may be cases where Oracle returns an error. This can occur because data may map out of the new partition when both of the following conditions exist:

This error condition can be eliminated by always specifying a default partition in the default subpartition template.

Merging Subpartitions in a Range-List Partitioned Table

You can merge the contents of any two arbitrary list subpartitions belonging to the same range partition. The resulting subpartition's value-list descriptor includes all of the literal values in the value lists for the partitions being merged.

The following statement merges two subpartitions of a table partitioned using range-list method into a new subpartition located in tablespace ts4:

ALTER TABLE quarterly_regional_sales
   MERGE SUBPARTITIONS q1_1999_northwest, q1_1999_southwest
      INTO SUBPARTITION q1_1999_west
         TABLESPACE ts4;

The value lists for the original two partitions were:

The resulting subpartition's value list comprises the set that represents the union of these two subpartition value lists:

The tablespace in which the resulting subpartition is located and the subpartition's attributes are determined by the partition-level default attributes, except for those specified explicitly. If any of the existing subpartition names are being reused, then the new subpartition inherits the subpartition attributes of the subpartition whose name is being reused.

Modifying Default Attributes

You can modify the default attributes of a table, or for a partition of a composite partitioned table. When you modify default attributes, the new attributes affect only future partitions, or subpartitions, that are created. The default values can still be specifically overridden when creating a new partition or subpartition.

Modifying Default Attributes of a Table

You modify the default attributes that will be inherited for range, list, or hash partitions using the MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES clause of ALTER TABLE. The following example changes the default value of PCTFREE in table emp for any new partitions that are created.

ALTER TABLE emp
      MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES PCTFREE 25;

For hash-partitioned tables, only the TABLESPACE attribute can be modified.

Modifying Default Attributes of a Partition

To modify the default attributes inherited when creating subpartitions, use the ALTER TABLE ... MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES FOR PARTITION. The following statement modifies the TABLESPACE in which future subpartitions of partition p1 in range-hash partitioned table emp will reside.

ALTER TABLE emp
     MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES FOR PARTITION p1 TABLESPACE ts1;

Since all subpartitions of a range-hash partitioned table must share the same attributes, except TABLESPACE, it is the only attribute that can be changed.

Modifying Default Attributes of Index Partitions

In similar fashion to table partitions, you can alter the default attributes that will be inherited by partitions of a range-partitioned global index, or local index partitions of partitioned tables. For this you use the ALTER INDEX ... MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES statement. Use the ALTER INDEX ... MODIFY DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES FOR PARTITION statement if you are altering default attributes to be inherited by subpartitions of a composite partitioned table.

Modifying Real Attributes of Partitions

It is possible to modify attributes of an existing partition of a table or index.

You cannot change the TABLESPACE attribute. Use ALTER TABLESPACE ... MOVE PARTITION/SUBPARTITION to move a partition or subpartition to a new tablespace.

Modifying Real Attributes for a Range or List Partition

Use the ALTER TABLE ... MODIFY PARTITION statement to modify existing attributes of a range partition or list partition. You can modify segment attributes (except TABLESPACE), or you can allocate and deallocate extents, mark local index partitions UNUSABLE, or rebuild local indexes that have been marked UNUSABLE.

If this is a range partition of a range-hash partitioned table, note the following:

The following are some examples of modifying the real attributes of a partition.

This example modifies the MAXEXTENTS storage attribute for the range partition sales_q1 of table sales:

ALTER TABLE sales MODIFY PARTITION sales_Q1
     STORAGE (MAXEXTENTS 10); 

All of the local index subpartitions of partition ts1 in range-hash partitioned table scubagear are marked UNUSABLE in the following example:

ALTER TABLE scubagear MPDIFY PARTITION ts1 UNUSABLE LOCAL INDEXES;

Modifying Real Attributes for a Hash Partition

You also use the ALTER TABLE ... MODIFY PARTITION statement to modify attributes of a hash partition. However, since the physical attributes of individual hash partitions must all be the same (except for TABLESPACE), you are restricted to:

The following example rebuilds any unusable local index partitions associated with hash partition P1 of table dept:

ALTER TABLE dept MODIFY PARTITION p1
     REBUILD UNUSABLE LOCAL INDEXES;

Modifying Real Attributes of a Subpartition

With the MODIFY SUBPARTITION clause of ALTER TABLE you can perform the same actions as listed previously for partitions, but at the specific composite partitioned table subpartition level. For example:

ALTER TABLE emp MODIFY SUBPARTITION p3_s1
     REBUILD UNUSABLE LOCAL INDEXES;

Modifying Real Attributes of Index Partitions

The MODIFY PARTITION clause of ALTER INDEX allows you to modify the real attributes of an index partition or its subpartitions. The rules are very similar to those for table partitions, but unlike the MODIFY PARTITION clause for ALTER TABLE, there is no subclause to rebuild an unusable index partition, but there is a subclause to coalesce an index partition or its subpartitions. In this context, coalesce means to merge index blocks where possible to free them for reuse.

You can also allocate or deallocate storage for a subpartition of a local index, or mark it UNUSABLE, using the MODIFY SUBPARTITION clause.

Modifying List Partitions: Adding Values

List partitioning allows you the option of adding literal values from the defining value list.

Adding Values for a List Partition

Use the MODIFY PARTITION ... ADD VALUES clause of the ALTER TABLE statement to extend the value list of an existing partition. Literal values being added must not have been included in any other partition's value list. The partition value list for any corresponding local index partition is correspondingly extended, and any global index, or global or local index partitions, remain usable.

The following statement adds a new set of state codes ('OK', 'KS') to an existing partition list.

ALTER TABLE sales_by_region
   MODIFY PARTITION region_south
      ADD VALUES ('OK', 'KS');

The existence of a default partition can have a performance impact when adding values to other partitions. This is because in order to add values to a list partition, Oracle must check that the values being added do not already exist in the default partition. If any of the values do exist in the default partition, an error is raised.


Note:

Because a query is executed to check for the existence of rows in the default partition that correspond to the literal values being added, it is advisable to create a local prefixed index on the table. This speeds up the execution of the query and the overall operation.


You cannot add values to a default list partition.

Adding Values for a List Subpartition

This operation is essentially the same as described for "Modifying List Partitions: Adding Values", however, you use a MODIFY SUBPARTITION clause instead of the MODIFY PARTITION clause. For example, to extend the range of literal values in the value list for subpartition q1_1999_southeast use the following statement:

ALTER TABLE quarterly_regional_sales
   MODIFY SUBPARTITION q1_1999_southeast
      ADD VALUES ('KS');

Literal values being added must not have been included in any other subpartition's value list within the owning partition. However, they can be duplicates of literal values in the subpartition value lists of other partitions within the table.

Modifying List Partitions: Dropping Values

List partitioning allows you the option of dropping literal values from the defining value list.

Dropping Values from a List Partition

Use the MODIFY PARTITION ... DROP VALUES clause of the ALTER TABLE statement to remove literal values from the value list of an existing partition. The statement is always executed with validation, meaning that it checks to see if any rows exist in the partition that correspond to the set of values being dropped. If any such rows are found then Oracle returns an error message and the operation fails. When necessary, use a DELETE statement to delete corresponding rows from the table before attempting to drop values.


Note:

You cannot drop all literal values from the value list describing the partition. You must use the ALTER TABLE ... DROP PARTITION statement instead.


The partition value list for any corresponding local index partition reflects the new value list, and any global index, or global or local index partitions, remain usable.

The statement below drops a set of state codes ('OK' and 'KS') from an existing partition value list.

ALTER TABLE sales_by_region
   MODIFY PARTITION region_south
      DROP VALUES ('OK', 'KS');

Note:

Because a query is executed to check for the existence of rows in the partition that correspond to the literal values being dropped, it is advisable to create a local prefixed index on the table. This speeds up the execution of the query and the overall operation.


You cannot drop values from a default list partition.

Dropping Values from a List Subpartition

This operation is essentially the same as described for "Modifying List Partitions: Dropping Values", however, you use a MODIFY SUBPARTITION clause instead of the MODIFY PARTITION clause. For example, to remove a set of literal values in the value list for subpartition q1_1999_southeast use the following statement:

ALTER TABLE quarterly_regional_sales
   MODIFY SUBPARTITION q1_1999_southeast
      DROP VALUES ('KS');

Modifying a Subpartition Template

You can modify a subpartition template of a composite partitioned table by replacing it with a new subpartition template. Any subsequent operations that use the subpartition template (such as ADD PARTITION or MERGE PARTITIONS) will now use the new subpartition template. Existing subpartitions remain unchanged.

Use the ALTER TABLE ... SET SUBPARTITION TEMPLATE statement to specify a new subpartition template. For example:

ALTER TABLE emp_sub_template
   SET SUBPARTITION TEMPLATE
         (SUBPARTITION e, TABLESPACE ts1,
          SUBPARTITION f, TABLESPACE ts2,
          SUBPARTITION g, TABLESPACE ts3,
          SUBPARTITION h, TABLESPACE ts4
         );

You can drop a subpartition template by specifying an empty list:

ALTER TABLE emp_sub_template
   SET SUBPARTITION TEMPLATE ( );

Moving Partitions

Use the MOVE PARTITION clause of the ALTER TABLE statement to:

Typically, you can change the physical storage attributes of a partition in a single step using an ALTER TABLE/INDEX ... MODIFY PARTITION statement. However, there are some physical attributes, such as TABLESPACE, that you cannot modify using MODIFY PARTITION. In these cases, use the MOVE PARTITION clause.

Unless the partition being moved does not contain any data, indexes may be marked UNUSABLE according to the following table:

Table Type Index Behavior

Regular (Heap)

  • The matching partition in each local index is marked UNUSABLE. You must rebuild these index partitions after issuing MOVE PARTITION.
  • Unless you specify UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES, any global indexes, or all partitions of partitioned global indexes, are marked UNUSABLE.

Index-organized

Any local or global indexes defined for the partition being moved remain usable because they are primary-key based logical rowids. However, the guess information for these rowids becomes incorrect.

Moving Table Partitions

Use the MOVE PARTITION clause to move a partition. For example, to move the most active partition to a tablespace that resides on its own disk (in order to balance I/O) and to not log the action, issue the following statement:

ALTER TABLE parts MOVE PARTITION depot2
     TABLESPACE ts094 NOLOGGING;

This statement always drops the partition's old segment and creates a new segment, even if you do not specify a new tablespace.

Moving Subpartitions

The following statement shows how to move data in a subpartition of a table. In this example, a PARALLEL clause has also been specified.

ALTER TABLE scuba_gear MOVE SUBPARTITION bcd_types 
     TABLESPACE tbs23 PARALLEL (DEGREE 2);

Moving Index Partitions

The ALTER TABLE ... MOVE PARTITION statement for regular tables, marks all partitions of a global index UNUSABLE. You can rebuild the entire index by rebuilding each partition individually using the ALTER INDEX ... REBUILD PARTITION statement. You can perform these rebuilds concurrently.

You can also simply drop the index and re-create it.

Rebuilding Index Partitions

Some reasons for rebuilding index partitions include:

The following sections discuss your options for rebuilding index partitions and subpartitions.

Rebuilding Global Index Partitions

You can rebuild global index partitions in two ways:

  1. Rebuild each partition by issuing the ALTER INDEX ... REBUILD PARTITION statement (you can run the rebuilds concurrently).
  2. Drop the entire global index and re-create it.

    Note:

    This second method is more efficient because the table is scanned only once.

For most maintenance operations on partitioned tables with global indexes, you can optionally avoid the need to rebuild the global index by specifying UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES on your DDL statement.

Rebuilding Local Index Partitions

Rebuild local indexes using either ALTER INDEX or ALTER TABLE as follows:

Using Alter Index to Rebuild a Partition

The ALTER INDEX ... REBUILD PARTITION statement rebuilds one partition of an index. It cannot be used on a range-hash partitioned table. When you re-create the index, you can also choose to move the partition to a new tablespace or change attributes.

For range-hash partitioned tables, use ALTER INDEX ... REBUILD SUBPARTITION to rebuild a subpartition of an index. You can move the subpartition to another tablespace or specify a parallel clause. The following statement rebuilds a subpartition of a local index on a table and moves the index subpartition is another tablespace.

ALTER INDEX scuba
   REBUILD SUBPARTITION bcd_types
   TABLESPACE tbs23 PARALLEL (DEGREE 2);
Using Alter Table to Rebuild an Index Partition

The REBUILD UNUSABLE LOCAL INDEXES clause of ALTER TABLE ... MODIFY PARTITION does not allow you to specify any new attributes for the rebuilt index partition. The following example finds and rebuilds any unusable local index partitions for table scubagear, partition p1.

ALTER TABLE scubagear
   MODIFY PARTITION p1 REBUILD UNUSABLE LOCAL INDEXES;

There is a corresponding ALTER TABLE ... MODIFY SUBPARTITION clause for rebuilding unusable local index subpartitions.

Renaming Partitions

It is possible to rename partitions and subpartitions of both tables and indexes. One reason for renaming a partition might be to assign a meaningful name, as opposed to a default system name that was assigned to the partition in another maintenance operation.

Renaming a Table Partition

Rename a range, hash, or list partition, using the ALTER TABLE ... RENAME PARTITION statement. For example:

ALTER TABLE scubagear RENAME PARTITION sys_p636 TO tanks;

Renaming a Table Subpartition

Likewise, you can assign new names to subpartitions of a table. In this case you would use the ALTER TABLE ... RENAME SUBPARTITION syntax.

Renaming Index Partitions

Index partitions and subpartitions can be renamed in similar fashion, but the ALTER INDEX syntax is used.

Renaming an Index Partition

Use the ALTER INDEX ... RENAME PARTITION statement to rename an index partition.

Renaming an Index Subpartition

This next statement simply shows how to rename a subpartition that has a system generated name that was a consequence of adding a partition to an underlying table:

ALTER INDEX scuba RENAME SUBPARTITION sys_subp3254 TO bcd_types;

Splitting Partitions

The SPLIT PARTITION clause of the ALTER TABLE or ALTER INDEX statement is used to redistribute the contents of a partition into two new partitions. Consider doing this when a partition becomes too large and causes backup, recovery, or maintenance operations to take a long time to complete. You can also use the SPLIT PARTITION clause to redistribute the I/O load.

This clause cannot be used for hash partitions or subpartitions.

Unless the partition you are splitting does not contain any data, indexes may be marked UNUSABLE as explained in the following table:

Table Type Index Behavior

Regular (Heap)

  • Oracle marks UNUSABLE the new partitions (there are two) in each local index.
  • Unless you specify UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES, any global indexes, or all partitions of partitioned global indexes, are marked UNUSABLE and must be rebuilt.

Index-organized

  • Oracle marks UNUSABLE the new partitions (there are two) in each local index.
  • All global indexes remain usable.

Splitting a Partition of a Range-Partitioned Table

You split a range partition using the ALTER TABLE ... SPLIT PARTITION statement. You specify a value of the partitioning key column within the range of the partition at which to split the partition. The first of the resulting two new partitions includes all rows in the original partition whose partitioning key column values map lower that the specified value. The second partition contains all rows whose partitioning key column values map greater than or equal to the specified value.

You can optionally specify new attributes for the two partitions resulting from the split. If there are local indexes defined on the table, this statement also splits the matching partition in each local index.

In the following example fee_katy is a partition in the table vet_cats, which has a local index, jaf1. There is also a global index, vet on the table. vet contains two partitions, vet_parta, and vet_partb.

To split the partition fee_katy, and rebuild the index partitions, issue the following statements:

ALTER TABLE vet_cats SPLIT PARTITION 
      fee_katy at (100) INTO ( PARTITION
      fee_katy1 ..., PARTITION fee_katy2 ...);
ALTER INDEX JAF1 REBUILD PARTITION fee_katy1;
ALTER INDEX JAF1 REBUILD PARTITION fee_katy2;
ALTER INDEX VET REBUILD PARTITION vet_parta;
ALTER INDEX VET REBUILD PARTITION vet_partb;

Note:

If you do not specify new partition names, Oracle assigns names of the form SYS_Pn. You can examine the data dictionary to locate the names assigned to the new local index partitions. You may want to rename them. Any attributes you do not specify are inherited from the original partition.


Splitting a Partition of a List-Partitioned Table

You split a list partition using the ALTER TABLE ... SPLIT PARTITION statement. The SPLIT PARTITION clause allows you to specify a value list of literal values that define a partition into which rows with corresponding partitioning key values are inserted. The remaining rows of the original partition are inserted into a second partition whole value list is the remaining values from the original partition.

You can optionally specify new attributes for the two partitions resulting from the split.

The following statement splits the partition region_east into 2 partitions:

ALTER TABLE sales_by_region 
   SPLIT PARTITION region_east VALUES ('CT', 'VA', 'MD') 
   INTO 
    ( PARTITION region_east_1 
         PCTFREE 25 TABLESPACE tbs2,
      PARTITION region_east_2
        STORAGE (NEXT 2M PCTINCREASE 25)) 
   PARALLEL 5;

The literal-value list for the original region_east partition was specified as:

PARTITION region_east VALUES ('MA','NY','CT','NH','ME','MD','VA','PA','NJ')

The two new partition's are:

The individual partitions have new physical attributes specified at the partition level. The operation is executed with parallelism of degree 5.

You can split a default list partition just like you split any other list partition. This is also the only means of adding a partition to list-partitioned table that contains a default partition. When you split the default partition, you create a new partition defined by the values that you specify, and a second partition that remains the default partition.

The following example splits the default partition of sales_by_region, thereby creating a new partition.

ALTER TABLE sales_by_region 
   SPLIT PARTITION region_unknown VALUES ('MT', 'WY', 'ID') 
   INTO 
    ( PARTITION region_wildwest,
      PARTITION region_unknown);

Splitting a Range-Hash Partition

This is the opposite of merging range-hash partitions. When you split range-hash partitions, the new subpartitions are rehashed into either the number of subpartitions specified in a SUBPARTITIONS or SUBPARTITION clause. Or, if no such clause is included, the new partitions inherit the number of subpartitions (and tablespaces) from the partition being split.

Note that the inheritance of properties is different when a range-hash partition is split, verses when two range-hash partitions are merged. When a partition is split, the new partitions can inherit properties from the original partition since there is only one parent. However, when partitions are merged, properties must be inherited from table level defaults because there are two parents and the new partition cannot inherit from either at the expense of the other.

The following example splits a range-hash partition:

ALTER TABLE all_seasons SPLIT PARTITION quarter_1 
     AT (TO_DATE('16-dec-1997','dd-mon-yyyy'))
     INTO (PARTITION q1_1997_1 SUBPARTITIONS 4 STORE IN (ts1,ts3),
           PARTITION q1_1997_2);

Splitting Partitions in a Range-List Partitioned Table

Partitions can be split at both the range partition level and at the list subpartition level.

Splitting a Range-List Partition

Splitting a range partition of a range-list partitioned table is similar to what is described in "Splitting a Partition of a Range-Partitioned Table". No subpartition literal value list can be specified for either of the new partitions. The new partitions inherit the subpartition descriptions from the original partition being split.

The following example splits the q1_1999 partition of the quarterly_regional_sales table:

ALTER TABLE quarterly_regional_sales SPLIT PARTITION q1_1999
   AT (to_date('15-Feb-1999','dd-mon-yyyy'))
   INTO ( PARTITION q1_1999_jan_feb
             PCTFREE 25 TABLESPACE ts1,
          PARTITION q1_1999_feb_mar
             STORAGE (NEXT 2M PCTINCREASE 25) TABLESPACE ts2) 
   PARALLEL 5;

This operation splits the partition q1_1999 into two resulting partitions: q1_1999_jan_feb and q1_1999_feb_mar. Both partitions inherit their subpartition descriptions from the original partition. The individual partitions have new physical attributes, including tablespaces, specified at the partition level. These new attributes become the default attributes of the new partitions. This operation is run with parallelism of degree 5.

The ALTER TABLE ... SPLIT PARTITION statement provides no means of specifically naming subpartitions resulting from the split of a partition in a composite partitioned table. However, for those subpartitions in the parent partition with names of the form "partition name_subpartition name", Oracle generates corresponding names in the newly created subpartitions using the new partition names. All other subpartitions are assigned system generated names of the form SYS_SUBPn. System generated names are also assigned for the subpartitions of any partition resulting from the split for which a name is not specified. Unnamed partitions are assigned a system generated partition name of the form SYS_Pn.

The following query displays the subpartition names resulting from the previous split partition operation on table quarterly_regional_sales. It also reflects the results of other operations performed on this table in preceding sections of this chapter since it's creation in "When to Use the Composite Range-List Partitioning Method".

SQL> SELECT PARTITION_NAME, SUBPARTITION_NAME, TABLESPACE_NAME
  2       FROM DBA_TAB_SUBPARTITIONS WHERE TABLE_NAME='QUARTERLY_REGIONAL_SALES'
  3       ORDER BY PARTITION_NAME;

PARTITION_NAME       SUBPARTITION_NAME              TABLESPACE_NAME
-------------------- ------------------------------ ---------------
Q1_1999_FEB_MAR      Q1_1999_FEB_MAR_WEST           TS2
Q1_1999_FEB_MAR      Q1_1999_FEB_MAR_NORTHEAST      TS2
Q1_1999_FEB_MAR      Q1_1999_FEB_MAR_SOUTHEAST      TS2
Q1_1999_FEB_MAR      Q1_1999_FEB_MAR_NORTHCENTRAL   TS2
Q1_1999_FEB_MAR      Q1_1999_FEB_MAR_SOUTHCENTRAL   TS2
Q1_1999_FEB_MAR      Q1_1999_FEB_MAR_SOUTH          TS2
Q1_1999_JAN_FEB      Q1_1999_JAN_FEB_WEST           TS1
Q1_1999_JAN_FEB      Q1_1999_JAN_FEB_NORTHEAST      TS1
Q1_1999_JAN_FEB      Q1_1999_JAN_FEB_SOUTHEAST      TS1
Q1_1999_JAN_FEB      Q1_1999_JAN_FEB_NORTHCENTRAL   TS1
Q1_1999_JAN_FEB      Q1_1999_JAN_FEB_SOUTHCENTRAL   TS1
Q1_1999_JAN_FEB      Q1_1999_JAN_FEB_SOUTH          TS1
Q1_2000              Q1_2000_NORTHWEST              TS3
Q1_2000              Q1_2000_SOUTHWEST              TS3
Q1_2000              Q1_2000_NORTHEAST              TS3
Q1_2000              Q1_2000_SOUTHEAST              TS3
Q1_2000              Q1_2000_NORTHCENTRAL           TS3
Q1_2000              Q1_2000_SOUTHCENTRAL           TS3
Q2_1999              Q2_1999_NORTHWEST              TS4
Q2_1999              Q2_1999_SOUTHWEST              TS4
Q2_1999              Q2_1999_NORTHEAST              TS4
Q2_1999              Q2_1999_SOUTHEAST              TS4
Q2_1999              Q2_1999_NORTHCENTRAL           TS4
Q2_1999              Q2_1999_SOUTHCENTRAL           TS4
Q3_1999              Q3_1999_NORTHWEST              TS4
Q3_1999              Q3_1999_SOUTHWEST              TS4
Q3_1999              Q3_1999_NORTHEAST              TS4
Q3_1999              Q3_1999_SOUTHEAST              TS4
Q3_1999              Q3_1999_NORTHCENTRAL           TS4
Q3_1999              Q3_1999_SOUTHCENTRAL           TS4
Q4_1999              Q4_1999_NORTHWEST              TS4
Q4_1999              Q4_1999_SOUTHWEST              TS4
Q4_1999              Q4_1999_NORTHEAST              TS4
Q4_1999              Q4_1999_SOUTHEAST              TS4
Q4_1999              Q4_1999_NORTHCENTRAL           TS4
Q4_1999              Q4_1999_SOUTHCENTRAL           TS4

36 rows selected.
Splitting a Range-List Subpartition

Splitting a list subpartition of a range-list partitioned table is similar to what is described in "Splitting a Partition of a List-Partitioned Table", but the syntax is that of SUBPARTITION rather than PARTITION. For example, the following statement splits a subpartition of the quarterly_regional_sales table:

ALTER TABLE quarterly_regional_sales SPLIT SUBPARTITION q2_1999_southwest
   VALUES ('UT') INTO
      ( SUBPARTITION q2_1999_utah
           TABLESPACE ts2,
        SUBPARTITION q2_1999_southwest
           TABLESPACE ts3
      ) 
   PARALLEL;

This operation splits the subpartition q2_1999_southwest into two subpartitions:

The individual subpartitions have new physical attributes that are inherited from the subpartition being split.

Splitting Index Partitions

You cannot explicitly split a partition in a local index. A local index partition is split only when you split a partition in the underlying table. However, you can split a global index partition as is done in the following example:

ALTER INDEX quon1 SPLIT 
    PARTITION canada AT ( 100 ) INTO 
    PARTITION canada1 ..., PARTITION canada2 ...);
ALTER INDEX quon1 REBUILD PARTITION canada1;
ALTER INDEX quon1 REBUILD PARTITION canada2;

The index being split can contain index data, and the resulting partitions do not require rebuilding, unless the original partition was previously marked UNUSABLE.

Optimizing SPLIT PARTITION and SPLIT SUBPARTITION Operations

Oracle implements a SPLIT PARTITION operation by creating two new partitions and redistributing the rows from the partition being split into the two new partitions. This is an expensive operation because it is necessary to scan all the rows of the partition being split and then insert them one-by-one into the new partitions. Local index partitions corresponding to the new partitions also need to be rebuilt. Further if you do not use the UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES clause, global indexes also require rebuilding.

Sometimes after a split operation, one of the new partitions contains all of the rows from the partition being split, while the other partition contains no rows. This is often the case when splitting the first partition of a table. Oracle can detect such situations and optimize the split operation. This optimization results in a fast split operation that behaves like an add partition operation.

Specifically, Oracle can optimize and speed up SPLIT PARTITION operations if two conditions are met:

If both of these conditions are met after the split, then all global indexes remain usable, even if you did not specify the UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES clause. Local index (sub)partitions associated with both resulting partitions remain usable if they were usable before the split. Local index (sub)partition(s) corresponding to the non-empty resulting partition will be identical to the local index (sub)partition(s) of the partition that was split.

The same optimization holds for SPLIT SUBPARTITION operations.

Truncating Partitions

Use the ALTER TABLE ... TRUNCATE PARTITION statement to remove all rows from a table partition. Truncating a partition is similar to dropping a partition, except that the partition is emptied of its data, but not physically dropped.

You cannot truncate an index partition. However, if there are local indexes defined for the table, the ALTER TABLE TRUNCATE PARTITION statement truncates the matching partition in each local index. Unless you specify UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES (cannot be specified for index-organized tables), any global indexes, or all partitions of partitioned global indexes, are marked UNUSABLE and must be rebuilt.

Truncating a Table Partition

Use the ALTER TABLE ... TRUNCATE PARTITION statement to remove all rows from a table partition, with or without reclaiming space.

Truncating Table Partitions Containing Data and Global Indexes

If the partition contains data and global indexes, use one of the following methods to truncate the table partition.

Method 1:

Leave the global indexes in place during the ALTER TABLE TRUNCATE PARTITION statement. In this example, table sales has a global index sales_area_ix, which is rebuilt.

ALTER TABLE sales TRUNCATE PARTITION dec98;
ALTER INDEX sales_area_ix REBUILD;

This method is most appropriate for large tables where the partition being truncated contains a significant percentage of the total data in the table.

Method 2:

Issue the DELETE statement to delete all rows from the partition before you issue the ALTER TABLE ... TRUNCATE PARTITION statement. The DELETE statement updates the global indexes, and also fires triggers and generates redo and undo logs.

For example, to truncate the first partition, which has a partition bound of 10000, issue the following statements:

DELETE FROM sales WHERE TRANSID < 10000;
ALTER TABLE sales TRUNCATE PARTITION dec98;

This method is most appropriate for small tables, or for large tables when the partition being truncated contains a small percentage of the total data in the table.

Method 3:

Specify UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES in the ALTER TABLE statement. This causes the global index to be truncated at the time the partition is truncated.

ALTER TABLE sales TRUNCATE PARTITION dec98
     UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES;
Truncating a Partition Containing Data and Referential Integrity Constraints

If a partition contains data and has referential integrity constraints, choose either of the following methods to truncate the table partition.

Method 1:

Disable the integrity constraints, issue the ALTER TABLE ... TRUNCATE PARTITION statement, then re-enable the integrity constraints:

ALTER TABLE sales
    DISABLE CONSTRAINT dname_sales1;
ALTER TABLE sales TRUNCATE PARTITTION dec94;
ALTER TABLE sales
    ENABLE CONSTRAINT dname_sales1;

This method is most appropriate for large tables where the partition being truncated contains a significant percentage of the total data in the table.

Method 2:

Issue the DELETE statement to delete all rows from the partition before you issue the ALTER TABLE ... TRUNCATE PARTITION statement. The DELETE statement enforces referential integrity constraints, and also fires triggers and generates redo and undo log.


Note:

You can substantially reduce the amount of logging by setting the NOLOGGING attribute (using ALTER TABLE ... MODIFY PARTITION ... NOLOGGING) for the partition before deleting all of its rows.


DELETE FROM sales WHERE TRANSID < 10000;
ALTER TABLE sales TRUNCATE PARTITION dec94;

This method is most appropriate for small tables, or for large tables when the partition being truncated contains a small percentage of the total data in the table.

Truncating a Subpartition

You use the ALTER TABLE ... TRUNCATE SUBPARTITION statement to remove all rows from a subpartition of a composite partitioned table. Corresponding local index subpartitions are also truncated.

The following statement shows how to truncate data in a subpartition of a table. In this example, the space occupied by the deleted rows is made available for use by other schema objects in the tablespace.

ALTER TABLE diving
   TRUNCATE SUBPARTITION us_locations
      DROP STORAGE;

Partitioned Tables and Indexes Examples

This section presents some examples for working with partitioned tables and indexes.

Moving the Time Window in a Historical Table

A historical table describes the business transactions of an enterprise over intervals of time. Historical tables can be base tables, which contain base information; for example, sales, checks, and orders. Historical tables can also be rollup tables, which contain summary information derived from the base information using operations such as GROUP BY, AVERAGE, or COUNT.

The time interval in a historical table is often a rolling window. DBAs periodically delete sets of rows that describe the oldest transactions, and in turn allocate space for sets of rows that describe the most recent transactions. For example, at the close of business on April 30, 1995, the DBA deletes the rows (and supporting index entries) that describe transactions from April 1994, and allocates space for the April 1995 transactions.

Now consider a specific example. You have a table, order, which contains 13 months of transactions: a year of historical data in addition to orders for the current month. There is one partition for each month. These monthly partitions are named order_yymm, as are the tablespaces in which they reside.

The order table contains two local indexes, order_ix_onum, which is a local, prefixed, unique index on the order number, and order_ix_supp, which is a local, non-prefixed index on the supplier number. The local index partitions are named with suffixes that match the underlying table. There is also a global unique index, order_ix_cust, for the customer name. order_ix_cust contains three partitions, one for each third of the alphabet. So on October 31, 1994, change the time window on order as follows:

  1. Back up the data for the oldest time interval.
    ALTER TABLESPACE order_9310 BEGIN BACKUP;
    ...
    ALTER TABLESPACE order_9310 END BACKUP;
    
    
  2. Drop the partition for the oldest time interval.
    ALTER TABLE order DROP PARTITION order_9310;
    
    
  3. Add the partition to the most recent time interval.
    ALTER TABLE order ADD PARTITION order_9411;
    
    
  4. Recreate the global index partitions.
    ALTER INDEX order_ix_cust REBUILD PARTITION order_ix_cust_AH;
    ALTER INDEX order_ix_cust REBUILD PARTITION order_ix_cust_IP;
    ALTER INDEX order_ix_cust REBUILD PARTITION order_ix_cust_QZ;
    
    

Ordinarily, Oracle acquires sufficient locks to ensure that no operation (DML, DDL, or utility) interferes with an individual DDL statement, such as ALTER TABLE ... DROP PARTITION. However, if the partition maintenance operation requires several steps, it is the DBA's responsibility to ensure that applications (or other maintenance operations) do not interfere with the multi-step operation in progress. Some methods for doing this are:

Converting a Partition View into a Partitioned Table

This scenario describes how to convert a partition view (also called "manual partition") into a partitioned table. The partition view is defined as follows:

CREATE VIEW accounts AS
      SELECT * FROM accounts_jan98
      UNION ALL
      SELECT * FROM accounts_feb98
      UNION ALL
      ...
      SELECT * FROM accounts_dec98;

To incrementally migrate the partition view to a partitioned table, follow these steps:

  1. Initially, only the two most recent partitions, accounts_nov98 and accounts_dec98, will be migrated from the view to the table by creating the partitioned table. Each partition gets a segment of two blocks (as a placeholder).
    CREATE TABLE accounts_new (...)
        TABLESPACE ts_temp STORAGE (INITIAL 2)
        PARTITION BY RANGE (opening_date)
             (PARTITION jan98 VALUES LESS THAN ('01-FEB-1998'),
              ...
             PARTITION dec98 VALUES LESS THAN ('01-JAN-1999'));
    
    
  2. Use the EXCHANGE PARTITION statement to migrate the tables to the corresponding partitions.
    ALTER TABLE accounts_new
        EXCHANGE PARTITION nov98 WITH TABLE 
            accounts_nov98 WITH VALIDATION;
    
    ALTER TABLE accounts_new
        EXCHANGE PARTITION dec98 WITH TABLE
            accounts_dec98 WITH VALIDATION;
    
    

    So now the placeholder data segments associated with the nov98 and dec98 partitions have been exchanged with the data segments associated with the accounts_nov98 and accounts_dec98 tables.

  3. Redefine the accounts view.
    CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW accounts AS
        SELECT * FROM accounts_jan98
        UNION ALL
        SELECT * FROM accounts_feb_98
        UNION ALL
        ...
        UNION ALL
        SELECT * FROM accounts_new PARTITION (nov98)
        UNION ALL
        SELECT * FROM accounts_new PARTITION (dec98);
    
    
  4. Drop the accounts_nov98 and accounts_dec98 tables, which own the placeholder segments that were originally attached to the nov98 and dec98 partitions.
  5. After all the tables in the UNION ALL view are converted into partitions, drop the view and rename the partitioned to the name of the view being dropped.
    DROP VIEW accounts;
    RENAME accounts_new TO accounts;
    

Viewing Information About Partitioned Tables and Indexes

The following views display information specific to partitioned tables and indexes:

View Description

DBA_PART_TABLES

ALL_PART_TABLES

USER_PART_TABLES

DBA view displays partitioning information for all partitioned tables in the database. ALL view displays partitioning information for all partitioned tables accessible to the user. USER view is restricted to partitioning information for partitioned tables owned by the user.

DBA_TAB_PARTITIONS

ALL_TAB_PARTITIONS

USER_TAB_PARTITIONS

Display partition-level partitioning information, partition storage parameters, and partition statistics generated by the DBMS_STATS package or the ANALYZE statement.

DBA_TAB_SUBPARTITIONS

ALL_TAB_SUBPARTITIONS

USER_TAB_SUBPARTITIONS

Display subpartition-level partitioning information, subpartition storage parameters, and subpartition statistics generated by the DBMS_STATS package or the ANALYZE statement.

DBA_PART_KEY_COLUMNS

ALL_PART_KEY_COLUMNS

USER_PART_KEY_COLUMNS

Display the partitioning key columns for partitioned tables.

DBA_SUBPART_KEY_COLUMNS

ALL_SUBPART_KEY_COLUMNS

USER_SUBPART_KEY_COLUMNS

Display the subpartitioning key columns for composite-partitioned tables (and local indexes on composite-partitioned tables).

DBA_PART_COL_STATISTICS

ALL_PART_COL_STATISTICS

USER_PART_COL_STATISTICS

Display column statistics and histogram information for the partitions of tables.

DBA_SUBPART_COL_STATISTICS

ALL_SUBPART_COL_STATISTICS

USER_SUBPART_COL_STATISTICS

Display column statistics and histogram information for subpartitions of tables.

DBA_PART_HISTOGRAMS

ALL_PART_HISTOGRAMS

USER_PART_HISTOGRAMS

Display the histogram data (end-points for each histogram) for histograms on table partitions.

DBA_SUBPART_HISTOGRAMS

ALL_SUBPART_HISTOGRAMS

USER_SUBPART_HISTOGRAMS

Display the histogram data (end-points for each histogram) for histograms on table subpartitions.

DBA_PART_INDEXES

ALL_PART_INDEXES

USER_PART_INDEXES

Display partitioning information for partitioned indexes.

DBA_IND_PARTITIONS

ALL_IND_PARTITIONS

USER_IND_PARTITIONS

Display the following for index partitions: partition-level partitioning information, storage parameters for the partition, statistics collected by the DBMS_STATS package or the ANALYZE statement.

DBA_IND_SUBPARTITIONS

ALL_IND_SUBPARTITIONS

USER_IND_SUBPARTITIONS

Display the following for index subpartitions: partition-level partitioning information, storage parameters for the partition, statistics collected by the DBMS_STATS package or the ANALYZE statement.

See Also:

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