Coalescing partitions is a way of reducing the number of partitions in a hash-partitioned table or index, or the number of subpartitions in a *-hash partitioned table. When a hash partition is coalesced, its contents are redistributed into one or more remaining partitions determined by the hash function. The specific partition that is coalesced is selected by the database, and is dropped after its contents have been redistributed. If you coalesce a hash partition or subpartition in the parent table of a reference-partitioned table definition, then the reference-partitioned table automatically inherits the new partitioning definition.



Index partitions may be marked UNUSABLE as explained in the following table:
Table Type     Index Behavior
Regular (Heap)     Unless you specify UPDATE INDEXES as part of the ALTER TABLE statement:

    *Any local index partition corresponding to the selected partition is also dropped. Local index partitions corresponding to the one or more absorbing partitions are marked UNUSABLE and must be rebuilt.
    *All global indexes, or all partitions of partitioned global indexes, are marked UNUSABLE and must be rebuilt.

Index-organized    

    * Some local indexes are marked UNUSABLE as noted for heap indexes.
    * All global indexes remain usable.


Coalescing a Partition in a Hash-Partitioned Table

The ALTER TABLE ... COALESCE PARTITION statement is used to coalesce a partition in a hash-partitioned table. The following statement reduces by one the number of partitions in a table by coalescing a partition.

ALTER TABLE ouu1

     COALESCE PARTITION;

Coalescing a Subpartition in a *-Hash Partitioned Table

The following statement distributes the contents of a subpartition of partition us_locations into one or more remaining subpartitions (determined by the hash function) of the same partition. Note that for an interval-partitioned table, you can only coalesce hash subpartitions of materialized range or interval partitions. Basically, this operation is the inverse of the MODIFY PARTITION ... ADD SUBPARTITION clause discussed in "Adding a Subpartition to a [Range | List | Interval]-Hash Partitioned Table".

ALTER TABLE diving MODIFY PARTITION us_locations

     COALESCE SUBPARTITION;

Coalescing Hash-partitioned Global Indexes

You can instruct the database to reduce by one the number of index partitions in a hash-partitioned global index using the COALESCE PARTITION clause of ALTER INDEX. The database selects the partition to coalesce based on the requirements of the hash partition. The following statement reduces by one the number of partitions in the hgidx index, created in "Creating a Hash-Partitioned Global Index":

ALTER INDEX hgidx COALESCE PARTITION;