Re: ITYM DROP TABLE

Alvaro Herrera <alvherre(at)commandprompt(dot)com> writes:
> Excerpts from David E. Wheeler's message of lun jun 13 17:44:05 -0400 2011:
>> I was reading the partitioning docs when I spotted this. I think it means to highlight the advantages of DROP TABLE over DELETE rather than ALTER TABLE.

> I think the point of the existing wording is to point out
> ALTER TABLE / NO INHERIT. I wonder if it's worth expanding the text to
> mention both, such as

> - <command>ALTER TABLE</> is far faster than a bulk operation.
> + <command>ALTER TABLE</> (to split out a sub-table from the partitioned
> + table) and <command>DROP TABLE</> (to remove a partition altogether) are
> + both far faster than a bulk operation.

I think you need to spell out "ALTER TABLE NO INHERIT" if you are going
to do that. This formulation seems to imply that *any* form of ALTER
TABLE is fast, which surely ain't the truth.

> However, this introductory text is supposed to be very brief; maybe we
> should remove mention of specific commands here.

No, I don't think it needs to be that brief. But if you think your
version is too long, remove the parenthetical remarks.

regards, tom lane