What is MySQL partitioning?

This post explains the concept of MySQL partitioning, detailing RANGE, LIST, and KEY partitioning strategies with code examples. It outlines the benefits of partitioning for query optimization and maintenance operations, as well as its drawbacks such as data type limitations and the risk of unbalanced partitions. Crucially, it contrasts partitioning with sharding, explaining that partitioning scales vertically on a single server while sharding scales horizontally across multiple servers. The post explicitly states that PlanetScale does not support partitioning because its architecture is built around Vitess for horizontal sharding, which offers greater scalability and avoids single points of failure.