Restrictions on DDL Operations on Partitions

You can drop, rename, partition, unpartition, merge, split, and move table partitions, with the following restrictions:

Operation

Restriction

Drop

You cannot drop a partition key column or the last partition of a partitioned table.

Rename

N/A

Partition an unpartitioned table

N/A

Merge two adjacent partitions

Both partitions must reside in the same dbspace. No data movement is required.

Split a partition

All rows must belong to one of the two partitions after splitting. Split partition must be on same dbspace as original so that no data movement is required.

Move a partition to a new dbspace.

All rows of the partition are moved to data pages in the new dbspace. CREATE permission in the new dbspace is required.

Partitioned tables cannot participate in a join index.

Related concepts
Considerations for Partitioned Table Loads