After partitioning a table, you may find that your partition scheme needs to be consolidated. Reasons for consolidating partitions are that the range is too small, or perhaps that as data partitioned on a date range becomes more infrequently accessed, it is more efficient to manage larger partitions. You can use PARTITIONMANAGE MERGE to consolidate two or more range (or list-range) partitions into a single partition, provided the partitions are adjacent in the range definition.
The syntax for PARTITIONMANAGE MERGE is as follows:
PARTITIONMANAGE MERGE accepts two or three partitions as input. The utility treats the input as follows:
If you specify two partitions, the first partition is the "start" partition, and the second is the "end" and implicit the "target" partition. All partitions between the start and end are merged into the end partition.
If you specify three partitions, the first partition is the "start" partition, and the second is the "end", and the third partition is the "target" partition. All partitions between the start and end are merged into the target partition.
If you specify two partitions, the first partition is the "start" partition, and the second is the "end" and implicit the "target" partition. All partitions between the start and end are merged into the end partition.