What is Table Partitioning in SQL Server?
What is Table Partitioning in SQL Server?
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22-Dec-2024
Updated on 28-Dec-2024
Khushi Singh
28-Dec-2024Table partitioning could be defined as the ability to partition a large table in an SQL Server into many smaller ones called partitions, but at the same time is still viewed and processed as one big table. The former assists in enhanced performances while the latter makes work on data more manageable.
There is a variation of one complete set of data of the table and each partition keeps only a partition of the table based on a condition such as range of dates, ID, or anything.
For instance, you can decide to partition the table of sales data based on years; all records from, let’s say year 2023 would be in one partition, 2022 in another, and so on.
Why Use Table Partitioning?
Better Performance: This will mean that queries can search only the particular partition of interest rather than the whole table.
Easier Maintenance: Each partition can be managed separately—for example, to merge or delete outdated information.
Faster Data Loading: Manipulating data with many partitions is faster than using a large table hence the addition or removal of partitions is better.
How It Works
Create a Partition Function: Describes the data features for dividing the data into input and output sets (like division on the date or by the range for some values).
Create a Partition Scheme: Describes where each partition will be located, for example, in a different filegroup.
Partition of the Table: For the purpose of this table the divisions are made on the basis of the function and scheme it relates to.
Here’s a simple example:
If for instance, you have a Sales table with millions of records, you can partition it by year. A question for the 2023 sales will then just search the 2023 partition rather than the whole table.
They are more appropriate if the number of records is high, otherwise, it has no significant effect on small tables.
If you're interested in learning more about SQL, here is our guide.