Re: ITYM DROP TABLE

Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@commandprompt.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
overDELETE 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