SQL Data Warehouse - Is it possible to switch a whole table to a partition?

Question

Probably a stupid question, but I wanted to know if it was possible to switch a whole table into a partition of a larger table?

I'm guessing not, as check constraints aren't available to constrain the table on the partition boundary.

Answer 1

Azure SQL Data Warehouse does not support check constraints so partition switching is a slightly different ballgame. The partition scheme as described in the table DDL (rather than a partition schema/function pair) must match exactly in both tables.

Code example duplicated from here:

-- Assume we have a file with the values 1 to 100 in it.

-- Create an external table over it; will have all records in
IF NOT EXISTS ( SELECT * FROM sys.schemas WHERE name = 'ext' )
EXEC ( 'CREATE SCHEMA ext' )
GO


-- DROP EXTERNAL TABLE ext.numbers
IF NOT EXISTS ( SELECT * FROM sys.external_tables WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID('ext.numbers') )
CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE ext.numbers (
    number          INT             NOT NULL
    )
WITH (
    LOCATION = 'numbers.csv',
    DATA_SOURCE = eds_yourDataSource, 
    FILE_FORMAT = ff_csv
);
GO

-- Create a partitioned, internal table with the records 1 to 50
IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.numbers') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE dbo.numbers

CREATE TABLE dbo.numbers
WITH (
    DISTRIBUTION = ROUND_ROBIN,
    CLUSTERED INDEX ( number ), 
    PARTITION ( number RANGE LEFT FOR VALUES ( 50, 100, 150, 200 ) )
    )
AS 
SELECT * 
FROM ext.numbers
WHERE number Between 1 And 50;
GO

-- DBCC PDW_SHOWPARTITIONSTATS ('dbo.numbers')


-- CTAS the second half of the external table, records 51-100 into an internal one.
-- As check contraints are not available in SQL Data Warehouse, ensure the switch table
-- uses the same scheme as the original table.
IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.numbers_part2') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE dbo.numbers_part2

CREATE TABLE dbo.numbers_part2
WITH (
    DISTRIBUTION = ROUND_ROBIN,
    CLUSTERED INDEX ( number ),
    PARTITION ( number RANGE LEFT FOR VALUES ( 50, 100, 150, 200 ) )
    )
AS 
SELECT *
FROM ext.numbers
WHERE number > 50
GO


-- Partition switch it into the original table
ALTER TABLE dbo.numbers_part2 SWITCH PARTITION 2 TO dbo.numbers PARTITION 2;


SELECT *
FROM dbo.numbers
ORDER BY 1;

HTH