In MySQL 8.4, it is possible to exchange a table partition or subpartition with a table using ALTER TABLE pt EXCHANGE PARTITION p WITH TABLE nt, where pt is the partitioned table and p is the partition or subpartition of pt to be exchanged with unpartitioned table nt, provided that the following statements are true:

In addition to the ALTER, INSERT, and CREATE privileges usually required for ALTER TABLE statements, you must have the DROP privilege to perform ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION.

You should also be aware of the following effects of ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION:

The syntax for ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION is shown here, where pt is the partitioned table, p is the partition (or subpartition) to be exchanged, and nt is the nonpartitioned table to be exchanged with p:

ALTER TABLE pt
    EXCHANGE PARTITION p
    WITH TABLE nt;

Optionally, you can append WITH VALIDATION or WITHOUT VALIDATION. When WITHOUT VALIDATION is specified, the ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION operation does not perform any row-by-row validation when exchanging a partition a nonpartitioned table, allowing database administrators to assume responsibility for ensuring that rows are within the boundaries of the partition definition. WITH VALIDATION is the default.

One and only one partition or subpartition may be exchanged with one and only one nonpartitioned table in a single ALTER TABLE EXCHANGE PARTITION statement. To exchange multiple partitions or subpartitions, use multiple ALTER TABLE EXCHANGE PARTITION statements. EXCHANGE PARTITION may not be combined with other ALTER TABLE options. The partitioning and (if applicable) subpartitioning used by the partitioned table may be of any type or types supported in MySQL 8.4.

Suppose that a partitioned table e has been created and populated using the following SQL statements:

CREATE TABLE e (
    id INT NOT NULL,
    fname VARCHAR(30),
    lname VARCHAR(30)
)
    PARTITION BY RANGE (id) (
        PARTITION p0 VALUES LESS THAN (50),
        PARTITION p1 VALUES LESS THAN (100),
        PARTITION p2 VALUES LESS THAN (150),
        PARTITION p3 VALUES LESS THAN (MAXVALUE)
);

INSERT INTO e VALUES
    (1669, "Jim", "Smith"),
    (337, "Mary", "Jones"),
    (16, "Frank", "White"),
    (2005, "Linda", "Black");

Now we create a nonpartitioned copy of e named e2. This can be done using the mysql client as shown here:

mysql> CREATE TABLE e2 LIKE e;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.04 sec)

mysql> ALTER TABLE e2 REMOVE PARTITIONING;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.07 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

You can see which partitions in table e contain rows by querying the Information Schema PARTITIONS table, like this:

mysql> SELECT PARTITION_NAME, TABLE_ROWS
           FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARTITIONS
           WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'e';
+----------------+------------+
| PARTITION_NAME | TABLE_ROWS |
+----------------+------------+
| p0             |          1 |
| p1             |          0 |
| p2             |          0 |
| p3             |          3 |
+----------------+------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

To exchange partition p0 in table e with table e2, you can use ALTER TABLE, as shown here:

mysql> ALTER TABLE e EXCHANGE PARTITION p0 WITH TABLE e2;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.04 sec)

More precisely, the statement just issued causes any rows found in the partition to be swapped with those found in the table. You can observe how this has happened by querying the Information Schema PARTITIONS table, as before. The table row that was previously found in partition p0 is no longer present:

mysql> SELECT PARTITION_NAME, TABLE_ROWS
           FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARTITIONS
           WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'e';
+----------------+------------+
| PARTITION_NAME | TABLE_ROWS |
+----------------+------------+
| p0             |          0 |
| p1             |          0 |
| p2             |          0 |
| p3             |          3 |
+----------------+------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

If you query table e2, you can see that the “missing” row can now be found there:

mysql> SELECT * FROM e2;
+----+-------+-------+
| id | fname | lname |
+----+-------+-------+
| 16 | Frank | White |
+----+-------+-------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

The table to be exchanged with the partition does not necessarily have to be empty. To demonstrate this, we first insert a new row into table e, making sure that this row is stored in partition p0 by choosing an id column value that is less than 50, and verifying this afterward by querying the PARTITIONS table:

mysql> INSERT INTO e VALUES (41, "Michael", "Green");
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.05 sec)

mysql> SELECT PARTITION_NAME, TABLE_ROWS
           FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARTITIONS
           WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'e';            
+----------------+------------+
| PARTITION_NAME | TABLE_ROWS |
+----------------+------------+
| p0             |          1 |
| p1             |          0 |
| p2             |          0 |
| p3             |          3 |
+----------------+------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Now we once again exchange partition p0 with table e2 using the same ALTER TABLE statement as previously:

mysql> ALTER TABLE e EXCHANGE PARTITION p0 WITH TABLE e2;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.28 sec)

The output of the following queries shows that the table row that was stored in partition p0 and the table row that was stored in table e2, prior to issuing the ALTER TABLE statement, have now switched places:

mysql> SELECT * FROM e;
+------+-------+-------+
| id   | fname | lname |
+------+-------+-------+
|   16 | Frank | White |
| 1669 | Jim   | Smith |
|  337 | Mary  | Jones |
| 2005 | Linda | Black |
+------+-------+-------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT PARTITION_NAME, TABLE_ROWS
           FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARTITIONS
           WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'e';
+----------------+------------+
| PARTITION_NAME | TABLE_ROWS |
+----------------+------------+
| p0             |          1 |
| p1             |          0 |
| p2             |          0 |
| p3             |          3 |
+----------------+------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM e2;
+----+---------+-------+
| id | fname   | lname |
+----+---------+-------+
| 41 | Michael | Green |
+----+---------+-------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

You should keep in mind that any rows found in the nonpartitioned table prior to issuing the ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION statement must meet the conditions required for them to be stored in the target partition; otherwise, the statement fails. To see how this occurs, first insert a row into e2 that is outside the boundaries of the partition definition for partition p0 of table e. For example, insert a row with an id column value that is too large; then, try to exchange the table with the partition again:

mysql> INSERT INTO e2 VALUES (51, "Ellen", "McDonald");
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.08 sec)

mysql> ALTER TABLE e EXCHANGE PARTITION p0 WITH TABLE e2;
ERROR 1707 (HY000): Found row that does not match the partition

Only the WITHOUT VALIDATION option would permit this operation to succeed:

mysql> ALTER TABLE e EXCHANGE PARTITION p0 WITH TABLE e2 WITHOUT VALIDATION;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)

When a partition is exchanged with a table that contains rows that do not match the partition definition, it is the responsibility of the database administrator to fix the non-matching rows, which can be performed using REPAIR TABLE or ALTER TABLE ... REPAIR PARTITION.

To avoid time consuming validation when exchanging a partition with a table that has many rows, it is possible to skip the row-by-row validation step by appending WITHOUT VALIDATION to the ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION statement.

The following example compares the difference between execution times when exchanging a partition with a nonpartitioned table, with and without validation. The partitioned table (table e) contains two partitions of 1 million rows each. The rows in p0 of table e are removed and p0 is exchanged with a nonpartitioned table of 1 million rows. The WITH VALIDATION operation takes 0.74 seconds. By comparison, the WITHOUT VALIDATION operation takes 0.01 seconds.

# Create a partitioned table with 1 million rows in each partition

CREATE TABLE e (
    id INT NOT NULL,
    fname VARCHAR(30),
    lname VARCHAR(30)
)
    PARTITION BY RANGE (id) (
        PARTITION p0 VALUES LESS THAN (1000001),
        PARTITION p1 VALUES LESS THAN (2000001),
);

mysql> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM e;
| COUNT(*) |
+----------+
|  2000000 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.27 sec)

# View the rows in each partition

SELECT PARTITION_NAME, TABLE_ROWS FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARTITIONS WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'e';
+----------------+-------------+
| PARTITION_NAME | TABLE_ROWS  |
+----------------+-------------+
| p0             |     1000000 |
| p1             |     1000000 |
+----------------+-------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

# Create a nonpartitioned table of the same structure and populate it with 1 million rows

CREATE TABLE e2 (
    id INT NOT NULL,
    fname VARCHAR(30),
    lname VARCHAR(30)
);

mysql> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM e2;
+----------+
| COUNT(*) |
+----------+
|  1000000 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.24 sec)

# Create another nonpartitioned table of the same structure and populate it with 1 million rows

CREATE TABLE e3 (
    id INT NOT NULL,
    fname VARCHAR(30),
    lname VARCHAR(30)
);

mysql> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM e3;
+----------+
| COUNT(*) |
+----------+
|  1000000 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.25 sec)

# Drop the rows from p0 of table e

mysql> DELETE FROM e WHERE id < 1000001;
Query OK, 1000000 rows affected (5.55 sec)

# Confirm that there are no rows in partition p0

mysql> SELECT PARTITION_NAME, TABLE_ROWS FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARTITIONS WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'e';
+----------------+------------+
| PARTITION_NAME | TABLE_ROWS |
+----------------+------------+
| p0             |          0 |
| p1             |    1000000 |
+----------------+------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

# Exchange partition p0 of table e with the table e2 'WITH VALIDATION'

mysql> ALTER TABLE e EXCHANGE PARTITION p0 WITH TABLE e2 WITH VALIDATION;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.74 sec)

# Confirm that the partition was exchanged with table e2

mysql> SELECT PARTITION_NAME, TABLE_ROWS FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARTITIONS WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'e';
+----------------+------------+
| PARTITION_NAME | TABLE_ROWS |
+----------------+------------+
| p0             |    1000000 |
| p1             |    1000000 |
+----------------+------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

# Once again, drop the rows from p0 of table e

mysql> DELETE FROM e WHERE id < 1000001;
Query OK, 1000000 rows affected (5.55 sec)

# Confirm that there are no rows in partition p0

mysql> SELECT PARTITION_NAME, TABLE_ROWS FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARTITIONS WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'e';
+----------------+------------+
| PARTITION_NAME | TABLE_ROWS |
+----------------+------------+
| p0             |          0 |
| p1             |    1000000 |
+----------------+------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

# Exchange partition p0 of table e with the table e3 'WITHOUT VALIDATION'

mysql> ALTER TABLE e EXCHANGE PARTITION p0 WITH TABLE e3 WITHOUT VALIDATION;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

# Confirm that the partition was exchanged with table e3

mysql> SELECT PARTITION_NAME, TABLE_ROWS FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARTITIONS WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'e';
+----------------+------------+
| PARTITION_NAME | TABLE_ROWS |
+----------------+------------+
| p0             |    1000000 |
| p1             |    1000000 |
+----------------+------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

If a partition is exchanged with a table that contains rows that do not match the partition definition, it is the responsibility of the database administrator to fix the non-matching rows, which can be performed using REPAIR TABLE or ALTER TABLE ... REPAIR PARTITION.

You can also exchange a subpartition of a subpartitioned table (see Section 26.2.6, “Subpartitioning”) with a nonpartitioned table using an ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION statement. In the following example, we first create a table es that is partitioned by RANGE and subpartitioned by KEY, populate this table as we did table e, and then create an empty, nonpartitioned copy es2 of the table, as shown here:

mysql> CREATE TABLE es (
    ->     id INT NOT NULL,
    ->     fname VARCHAR(30),
    ->     lname VARCHAR(30)
    -> )
    ->     PARTITION BY RANGE (id)
    ->     SUBPARTITION BY KEY (lname)
    ->     SUBPARTITIONS 2 (
    ->         PARTITION p0 VALUES LESS THAN (50),
    ->         PARTITION p1 VALUES LESS THAN (100),
    ->         PARTITION p2 VALUES LESS THAN (150),
    ->         PARTITION p3 VALUES LESS THAN (MAXVALUE)
    ->     );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (2.76 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO es VALUES
    ->     (1669, "Jim", "Smith"),
    ->     (337, "Mary", "Jones"),
    ->     (16, "Frank", "White"),
    ->     (2005, "Linda", "Black");
Query OK, 4 rows affected (0.04 sec)
Records: 4  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> CREATE TABLE es2 LIKE es;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.27 sec)

mysql> ALTER TABLE es2 REMOVE PARTITIONING;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.70 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

Although we did not explicitly name any of the subpartitions when creating table es, we can obtain generated names for these by including the SUBPARTITION_NAME column of the PARTITIONS table from INFORMATION_SCHEMA when selecting from that table, as shown here:

mysql> SELECT PARTITION_NAME, SUBPARTITION_NAME, TABLE_ROWS
    ->     FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARTITIONS
    ->     WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'es';
+----------------+-------------------+------------+
| PARTITION_NAME | SUBPARTITION_NAME | TABLE_ROWS |
+----------------+-------------------+------------+
| p0             | p0sp0             |          1 |
| p0             | p0sp1             |          0 |
| p1             | p1sp0             |          0 |
| p1             | p1sp1             |          0 |
| p2             | p2sp0             |          0 |
| p2             | p2sp1             |          0 |
| p3             | p3sp0             |          3 |
| p3             | p3sp1             |          0 |
+----------------+-------------------+------------+
8 rows in set (0.00 sec)

The following ALTER TABLE statement exchanges subpartition p3sp0 in table es with the nonpartitioned table es2:

mysql> ALTER TABLE es EXCHANGE PARTITION p3sp0 WITH TABLE es2;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.29 sec)

You can verify that the rows were exchanged by issuing the following queries:

mysql> SELECT PARTITION_NAME, SUBPARTITION_NAME, TABLE_ROWS
    ->     FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARTITIONS
    ->     WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'es';
+----------------+-------------------+------------+
| PARTITION_NAME | SUBPARTITION_NAME | TABLE_ROWS |
+----------------+-------------------+------------+
| p0             | p0sp0             |          1 |
| p0             | p0sp1             |          0 |
| p1             | p1sp0             |          0 |
| p1             | p1sp1             |          0 |
| p2             | p2sp0             |          0 |
| p2             | p2sp1             |          0 |
| p3             | p3sp0             |          0 |
| p3             | p3sp1             |          0 |
+----------------+-------------------+------------+
8 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM es2;
+------+-------+-------+
| id   | fname | lname |
+------+-------+-------+
| 1669 | Jim   | Smith |
|  337 | Mary  | Jones |
| 2005 | Linda | Black |
+------+-------+-------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

If a table is subpartitioned, you can exchange only a subpartition of the table—not an entire partition—with an unpartitioned table, as shown here:

mysql> ALTER TABLE es EXCHANGE PARTITION p3 WITH TABLE es2;
ERROR 1704 (HY000): Subpartitioned table, use subpartition instead of partition

Table structures are compared in a strict fashion; the number, order, names, and types of columns and indexes of the partitioned table and the nonpartitioned table must match exactly. In addition, both tables must use the same storage engine:

mysql> CREATE TABLE es3 LIKE e;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.31 sec)

mysql> ALTER TABLE es3 REMOVE PARTITIONING;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.53 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> SHOW CREATE TABLE es3\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
       Table: es3
Create Table: CREATE TABLE `es3` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `fname` varchar(30) DEFAULT NULL,
  `lname` varchar(30) DEFAULT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> ALTER TABLE es3 ENGINE = MyISAM;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.15 sec)
Records: 0  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> ALTER TABLE es EXCHANGE PARTITION p3sp0 WITH TABLE es3;
ERROR 1497 (HY000): The mix of handlers in the partitions is not allowed in this version of MySQL

The ALTER TABLE ... ENGINE ... statement in this example works because the previous ALTER TABLE removed the partitioning from table es3.