Partitioning by Datetime vs Date vs Int Performance

Use the “Date” datatype rather than “Int” datatype.

Int (formatted in YYYYMMDD) used to be the recommended format for partitioning, as it was cheaper (@ 4 bytes/row) than datetime (@ 8 bytes/row). Date is 3 bytes/row and is in a natural date format. Also, INT is a pain in the butt to query on as you have to add conversions in your’ search arguments.

Recommendation: Use “Date” date type for partition column.

Sources:

https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/50774/partitioning-by-datetime-vs-date-vs-int-performance