Apache Hive Cookbook

Partitioning an external table

Partitioning external tables works in the same way as in managed tables. Except this in the external table, when you delete a partition, the data file doesn't get deleted.

How to do it…

First create an EXTERNAL table for the customer data using the following command:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE customer_external(id STRING, name STRING, gender STRING, state STRING) PARTITIONED BY (country STRING);

Now a partition can be added to the EXTERNAL table, using the ALTER TABLE ADD PARTITION command:

ALTER TABLE customer_external ADD PARTITION(country='UK') LOCATION '/user/hive/warehouse/customer/country=UK'