> > iv) Based on the PRIMARY, UNIQUE, REFERENCES information specified, > > pass it on to the children tables. > > How will you maintain a primary key in such a table, > considering that indexes can't span multiple tables?
Many partitioning schemes have (or can be made to have) only one possible target partition for the primary key. Thus if you create separate unique indexes on each partition the problem is solved. For a first version I opt, that it is sufficient to disallow creation of a unique index on the master, when the constraints (on columns of this index) do not nail down a specific partition for each row (e.g. a hash or a range on one of the index columns that does not overlap). Later, global index, or indexes with separate partitioning rules can be implemented, that cover the other cases.
Andreas
Yes, I agree. For version 1, UNIQUE/PRIMARY indexes will cascade down to the child table, only if the indexed column is present as part of the partitioning rule.
