Range Partitioning

Rows in a range-partitioned table or index are distributed among partitions according to values in the partitioning key columns.

The partitioning column values of each row are compared with a set of upper and lower bounds to determine the partition to which the row belongs.

Range partitioning is particularly useful for high-performance applications in both OLTP and decision-support environments. Select ranges carefully so that rows are assigned equally to all partitions—knowledge of the data distribution of the partition-key columns is crucial to balancing the load evenly among the partitions.

Range partitions are ordered; that is, each succeeding partition must have a higher bound than the previous partition.