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Short answer

Partitioning splits one logical table into smaller physical pieces. Queries can skip irrelevant partitions; bulk load and delete can add or drop whole partitions. [S1]

Sketch

CREATE TABLE measurement (
  logdate date not null, peaktemp int
) PARTITION BY RANGE (logdate);

Points

• Partitioning is splitting one large logical table into smaller pieces. [S1]
• Bulk loads and deletes can add or remove partitions. [S1]
• CREATE TABLE ... PARTITION BY chooses the strategy and partition key. [S2]
• The parenthesized key list is the partition key for the table. [S2]

Claims

• id: C1 claim: Partitioning splits one logical table into smaller pieces. source: S1 evidence: "splitting what is logically one large table into smaller physical pieces"
• id: C2 claim: Bulk loads and deletes can add or remove partitions. source: S1 evidence: "Bulk loads and deletes can be accomplished by adding or removing partitions"
• id: C3 claim: PARTITION BY sets the partitioning strategy. source: S2 evidence: "The optional PARTITION BY clause specifies a strategy of partitioning the table"
• id: C4 claim: The column list forms the partition key. source: S2 evidence: "forms the partition key for the table"

Sources

• [S1] PostgreSQL: Documentation: 18: 5.12. Table Partitioning. PostgreSQL Global Development Group. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ddl-partitioning.html . License: PostgreSQL License. Accessed 2026-11-05.
• [S2] CREATE TABLE. PostgreSQL Global Development Group. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-createtable.html . License: PostgreSQL License. Accessed 2026-11-05.

License: this note is CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted).

Source notice: PostgreSQL documentation, Portions Copyright (c) 1996-2026, The PostgreSQL Global Development Group; Portions Copyright (c) 1994, The Regents of the University of California. Used under the PostgreSQL License (https://www.postgresql.org/about/licence/).

@misc{iil_note_shrgk9e7,
  author = {{iinventedlight}},
  title = {{PostgreSQL table partitioning: when and which kind}},
  howpublished = {iinventedlight Library},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-11-04},
  url = {https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/postgres-partitioning/},
  note = {Permanent ID iil:note:shrgk9e7. License: CC-BY-4.0.},
}

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