Merging partitions in a *-list partitioned table is as described previously in "Merging Range Partitions". However, when you merge two *-list partitions, the resulting new partition inherits the subpartition descriptions from the subpartition template, if a template exists. If no subpartition template exists, then a single default subpartition is created for the new partition.
For interval-list partitioned tables, you can only merge two adjacent interval partitions, or the highest range partition with the first interval partition. As described in "Merging Interval Partitions", the transition point moves when you merge intervals in an interval-list partitioned table.
The following statement merges two partitions in the range-list partitioned stripe_regional_sales table. A subpartition template exists for the table.
ALTER TABLE stripe_regional_sales
MERGE PARTITIONS q1_1999, q2_1999 INTO PARTITION q1_q2_1999
STORAGE(MAXEXTENTS 20);
Some new physical attributes are specified for this new partition while table-level defaults are inherited for those that are not specified. The new resulting partition q1_q2_1999 inherits the high-value bound of the partition q2_1999 and the subpartition value-list descriptions from the subpartition template description of the table.
The data in the resulting partitions consists of data from both the partitions. However, there may be cases where the database returns an error. This can occur because data may map out of the new partition when both of the following conditions exist:
This error condition can be eliminated by always specifying a default partition in the default subpartition template.
Some literal values of the merged subpartitions were not included in the subpartition template.
The subpartition template does not contain a default partition definition.