Partitioned tables are tables divided into segments to make them easier to manage, cheaper to query and store. To partition a table you have to specify a partition column to segment the table. Key features:
- You can set a partition expiration time to automatiaclly delete partitions after a selected period of time.
- Write and delete data to a specific partition without scanning the entire table. Details:
- Types of partitioning: integer, time-unit (DATE, TIMESTAMP, DATETIME) or ingestion time (PARTITIONTIME)
- Partitioning allows to determine query costs before a query runs (not the case for Clustered tables have a column sort order)
- Important: You can optimize storage on partitions, for example BigQuery storage types; active, long-term and metadata pricing applies to partitions.
References
Introduction to partitioned tables | BigQuery. [Online]. Available at: https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/partitioned-tables [Accessed 8 May 2025]. Query partitioned tables | BigQuery. [Online]. Available at: https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/querying-partitioned-tables [Accessed 8 May 2025].