SQL/MP Reference Manual

HP NonStop SQL/MP Reference Manual—523352-013
P-20
PARTNS Table

New partitions must comply with the limits on the number and size of partitions. For
more information, see Limits on page L-6.

You can partition tables of any file organization but you cannot partition a
key-sequenced table that has a system-defined primary key (as opposed to a
user-defined primary key) unless it also has a clustering key.

For relative and entry-sequenced tables, SQL determines the set of rows in a
partition, depending on the size of the partitions and the size of the rows. For
key-sequenced tables and for indexes, you specify the set of rows in each partition
with the FIRST KEY clause of the PARTITION clause.

To take advantage of Format 2 enabling, your system must be version 350 or later.

Only key-sequenced tables can be Format 2 enabled and can have partitions that
are either Format 1 or 2. Relative and entry-sequenced tables can only be Format
1 enabled and must have Format 1 partitions.
PARTNS Table
The PARTNS table is a catalog table that describes the partitions of a table. Table P-1
describes the contents of the PARTNS table.
The PARTNS table was created in Version 1. There have been no subsequent
changes.
A partitioned table has a primary partition (the first partition of the table) and one or
more secondary partitions. Each partition has the same subvolume and object name,
but a different node or volume name than every other partition of the table (because
each partition resides on a different node or volume than every other partition of the
table).
Each partition must be registered in a catalog on the node on which that partition
resides. For each partition registered in a catalog (the FILENAME column of the
PARTNS table), the PARTNS table for that catalog contains one entry for each partition
Table P-1. The PARTNS Table
Column Name Data Type Description
1 FILENAME* CHAR (34) Name of this partition
2 PRIMARYPARTITION * CHAR (1) Y if primary partition
N if secondary partition
3 PARTITIONNAME* CHAR (34) Name of another partition of the table
4 CATALOGNAME CHAR (25) Name of catalog in which partition is
registered
5 FIRSTKEY VARCHAR (3000) Starting values for each column in
primary key
* Indicates primary key