Partitioning (Data Lake / Table Format)

Partitioning in the context of data lakes and open table formats involves organizing data files into separate directories based on the values of specific columns (e.g., date, region, customer ID). This physical layout allows query engines to skip reading irrelevant data, significantly improving query performance by reducing the amount of data scanned. Table formats like Iceberg manage partitioning complexity and allow partition schemes to evolve over time.