What in the world is a partitioned table?

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What in the world is a partitioned table?

scarr030

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November 5, 2016 at 8:34 am

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I'm familiar with partitioning a result set using the OVER(PARTITION BY.....) option. However, I'm reading a study kit by Itzik Ben-Gan, and he writes about partitioning views and references partitioning tables. However, there isn't really a clear explanation of what a partitioned table actually is. Is it just simply the result set partition I am already familiar with? To me, a table that's already partitioned doesn't make sense because tables are relational and thus have no order, therefore a partition isn't really useable... then again, I am new at this.
Thanks!

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Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004410 More actions · Answer 1

scarr030 (11/5/2016)
I'm familiar with partitioning a result set using the OVER(PARTITION BY.....) option. However, I'm reading a study kit by Itzik Ben-Gan, and he writes about partitioning views and references partitioning tables. However, there isn't really a clear explanation of what a partitioned table actually is. Is it just simply the result set partition I am already familiar with? To me, a table that's already partitioned doesn't make sense because tables are relational and thus have no order, therefore a partition isn't really useable... then again, I am new at this.
Thanks!

Unfortunately, study kits frequently aren't for newbies and they usually say so right in the book. That, notwithstanding, Yabingooglehoo is your friend here.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=partitioned+tables+sql+server

http://www.bing.com/search?q=partitioned+tables+sql+server&qs=AS&pq=partitioned+tables&sk=AS3&sc=8-18&sp=4&cvid=571A71136995402ABE7D84CA8EF1B38B&FORM=QBLH

https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylc=X3oDMTFiaHBhMnJmBF9TAzIwMjM1MzgwNzUEaXRjAzEEc2VjA3NyY2hfcWEEc2xrA3NyY2hhc3Q-?p=partitioned+table+sql+server&fr=yfp-t-s&fp=1&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736494 More actions · Answer 2

A partitioned table actually is a split of a table into sections. Right now, your tables are really set as pages, and you treat the table as one object. You can split this with a partition key and deal with sections of the tables.

Here's a basic BOL page: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188730.aspx