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Create Partition Wizard (Select Partitioning Column Page)

Use the Select Partitioning Column page to choose the column you want to partition your data on.

The choices you have for the partitioning column and the values range are determined primarily by the extent to which your data can be grouped in a logical way. For example, you may choose to divide your data into logical groupings by months or quarters of a year. The queries you plan to make against your data will determine whether this logical grouping is adequate for managing your table partitions.

Only columns with data types that can be used to partition data will be displayed in the Available partitioning columns grid. If you select a computed column as the partitioning column, the column must be designated as a persisted column.

Columns with the following data types cannot be used as partitioning columns: text, ntext, image, xml, timestamp, varchar(max), nvarchar(max), varbinary(max), alias, hierarchyid, spatial, or CLR user-defined data types.

  • Available partitioning columns
    Lists available columns in the table that you can select as the partitioning column.

  • Collocate to an available partitioned table
    Select a partitioned table that contains related data to join with this table on the partitioning column. Tables with partitions joined on the partitioning columns are typically queried more efficiently.

  • Storage-align non-unique indexes and unique indexes with an indexed partition column
    Aligns all indexes of the table that are partitioned with the same partition scheme.

    When a table and its indexes are aligned, you can move partitions in and out of partitioned tables more effectively, because your data is partitioned with the same algorithm.