4.16 The INFORMATION_SCHEMA PARTITIONS Table

The PARTITIONS table provides information about table partitions. Each row in this table corresponds to an individual partition or subpartition of a partitioned table. For more information about partitioning tables, see Partitioning.

The PARTITIONS table has these columns:

• TABLE_CATALOG

  The name of the catalog to which the table belongs. This value is always def.

• TABLE_SCHEMA

  The name of the schema (database) to which the table belongs.

• TABLE_NAME

  The name of the table containing the partition.

• PARTITION_NAME

  The name of the partition.

• SUBPARTITION_NAME

  If the PARTITIONS table row represents a subpartition, the name of subpartition; otherwise NULL.

• PARTITION_ORDINAL_POSITION

  All partitions are indexed in the same order as they are defined, with 1 being the number assigned to the first partition. The indexing can change as partitions are added, dropped, and reorganized; the number shown is this column reflects the current order, taking into account any indexing changes.

• SUBPARTITION_ORDINAL_POSITION

  Subpartitions within a given partition are also indexed and reindexed in the same manner as partitions are indexed within a table.

• PARTITION_METHOD

  One of the values RANGE, LIST, HASH, LINEAR HASH, KEY, or LINEAR KEY; that is, one of the available partitioning types as discussed in Partitioning Types.

• SUBPARTITION_METHOD

  One of the values HASH, LINEAR HASH, KEY, or LINEAR KEY; that is, one of the available subpartitioning types as discussed in Subpartitioning.

• PARTITION_EXPRESSION

  The expression for the partitioning function used in the CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statement that created the table's current partitioning scheme.

  For example, consider a partitioned table created in the test database using this statement:

  CREATE TABLE tp (
      c1 INT,
      c2 INT,
      c3 VARCHAR(25)
  )
  PARTITION BY HASH(c1 + c2)
  PARTITIONS 4;

  The PARTITION_EXPRESSION column in a PARTITIONS table row for a partition from this table displays c1 + c2, as shown here:

  mysql> SELECT DISTINCT PARTITION_EXPRESSION
         FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARTITIONS
         WHERE TABLE_NAME='tp' AND TABLE_SCHEMA='test';
  +----------------------+
  | PARTITION_EXPRESSION |
  +----------------------+
  | c1 + c2              |
  +----------------------+

  For an NDB table that is not explicitly partitioned, this column is empty. For tables using other storage engines and which are not partitioned, this column is NULL.

• SUBPARTITION_EXPRESSION

  This works in the same fashion for the subpartitioning expression that defines the subpartitioning for a table as PARTITION_EXPRESSION does for the partitioning expression used to define a table's partitioning.

  If the table has no subpartitions, this column is NULL.

• PARTITION_DESCRIPTION

  This column is used for RANGE and LIST partitions. For a RANGE partition, it contains the value set in the partition's VALUES LESS THAN clause, which can be either an integer or MAXVALUE. For a LIST partition, this column contains the values defined in the partition's VALUES IN clause, which is a list of comma-separated integer values.

  For partitions whose PARTITION_METHOD is other than RANGE or LIST, this column is always NULL.

• TABLE_ROWS

  The number of table rows in the partition.

  For partitioned InnoDB tables, the row count given in the TABLE_ROWS column is only an estimated value used in SQL optimization, and may not always be exact.

  For NDB tables, you can also obtain this information using the ndb_desc utility.

• AVG_ROW_LENGTH

  The average length of the rows stored in this partition or subpartition, in bytes. This is the same as DATA_LENGTH divided by TABLE_ROWS.

  For NDB tables, you can also obtain this information using the ndb_desc utility.

• DATA_LENGTH

  The total length of all rows stored in this partition or subpartition, in bytes; that is, the total number of bytes stored in the partition or subpartition.

  For NDB tables, you can also obtain this information using the ndb_desc utility.

• MAX_DATA_LENGTH

  The maximum number of bytes that can be stored in this partition or subpartition.

  For NDB tables, you can also obtain this information using the ndb_desc utility.

• INDEX_LENGTH

  The length of the index file for this partition or subpartition, in bytes.

  For partitions of NDB tables, whether the tables use implicit or explicit partitioning, the INDEX_LENGTH column value is always 0. However, you can obtain equivalent information using the ndb_desc utility.

• DATA_FREE

  The number of bytes allocated to the partition or subpartition but not used.

  For NDB tables, you can also obtain this information using the ndb_desc utility.

• CREATE_TIME

  The time that the partition or subpartition was created.

• UPDATE_TIME

  The time that the partition or subpartition was last modified.

• CHECK_TIME

  The last time that the table to which this partition or subpartition belongs was checked.

  For partitioned InnoDB tables, the value is always NULL.

• CHECKSUM

  The checksum value, if any; otherwise NULL.

• PARTITION_COMMENT

  The text of the comment, if the partition has one. If not, this value is empty.

  The maximum length for a partition comment is defined as 1024 characters, and the display width of the PARTITION_COMMENT column is also 1024, characters to match this limit.

• NODEGROUP

  This is the nodegroup to which the partition belongs. For NDB Cluster tables, this is always default. For partitioned tables using storage engines other than NDB, the value is also default. Otherwise, this column is empty.

• TABLESPACE_NAME

  The name of the tablespace to which the partition belongs. The value is always DEFAULT, unless the table uses the NDB storage engine (see the Notes at the end of this section).

Notes

• PARTITIONS is a nonstandard INFORMATION_SCHEMA table.

• A table using any storage engine other than NDB and which is not partitioned has one row in the PARTITIONS table. However, the values of the PARTITION_NAME, SUBPARTITION_NAME, PARTITION_ORDINAL_POSITION, SUBPARTITION_ORDINAL_POSITION, PARTITION_METHOD, SUBPARTITION_METHOD, PARTITION_EXPRESSION, SUBPARTITION_EXPRESSION, and PARTITION_DESCRIPTION columns are all NULL. Also, the PARTITION_COMMENT column in this case is blank.

• An NDB table which is not explicitly partitioned has one row in the PARTITIONS table for each data node in the NDB cluster. For each such row:

  • The SUBPARTITION_NAME, SUBPARTITION_ORDINAL_POSITION, SUBPARTITION_METHOD, SUBPARTITION_EXPRESSION, CREATE_TIME, UPDATE_TIME, CHECK_TIME, CHECKSUM, and TABLESPACE_NAME columns are all NULL.

  • The PARTITION_METHOD is always KEY.

  • The NODEGROUP column is default.

  • The PARTITION_EXPRESSION and PARTITION_COMMENT columns are empty.