Most Postgres (PostgreSQL) users who are familiar with partitioning use the method described in the partitioning documentation. This architecture comes in a fairly standard stack: One empty base table for structure. At least one child table that inherits the base design. A trigger to redirect inserts based on the partitioning scheme. A constraint on each child table to enforce the partition scheme, and help the planner exclude child partitions from inapplicable queries.

What’s a good table to partition? It’s not always a question with an obvious answer. Most often, size and volume determine whether or not a table should be broken into several chunks. However, there’s also cases where business or architecture considerations might use partitioning to preserve a shared table structure, or drive aggregate analysis over a common core. In Postgres (PostgreSQL), this is even more relevant because of how partitioning is handled through inheritance.

I just realized I am a victim of the Peter Principle. Ever since I can remember, I’ve been a very quiet and withdrawn person. When people see that, they need to assign a cause. Well, if someone isn’t talking, they must be listening or thinking. If they think a lot, they must be smart. So every adult I ever met when I was a child always treated that way. Of course, I am then pressured to push myself—to fulfill their expectations.

Humanity simply doesn’t have a brain capable of it. People can only mentally relate to a certain number of people or ideals. Anything else becomes foreign. Our animal brains see foreign things as potential threats, and puts up guards. Suddenly, a person starts to wonder: why don’t those other people do it the way we do? The ‘it’ here can be anything: Religion, politics, pick any subject. That question evolves into a disagreement, then an argument, then a schism, and so on.

In the next few weeks, I’m going to be pushing a long discussion regarding Postgres (PostgreSQL) table partitioning. I’ve covered it in previous articles, but only regarding basic performance considerations. That’s a very limited view of what partitioning can offer; there’s a lot more variance and background that deserves elucidation. So for the next few articles, the topic of discussion will be partitioning. There’s not really enough of it, and a lot of the techniques used in the field are effectively pulled straight from the documentation.