Patent ID: 8583657

Claim:
A method for using an index that is hash-partitioned to access a table that is not hash partitioned, executed by at least one or more processors, the method comprising: receiving a request at a database system to perform an operation involving the table that is not hash-partitioned: looking up a key in the hash-partitioned index by: applying a hash function to the key to identify a unique index partition; and using the key to perform a lookup in the identified index partition to identify a row of the table that matches the key; adding one or more partitions to the hash-partitioned index by subdividing a source index partition to create two new partitions and creating a set of new partitions to replace a set of existing partitions in the hash-partitioned index, wherein the set of new partitions is more than the set of existing partitions; scanning through all rows in the table; obtaining a second key for each row in the table; applying a new hash function to the obtained second key to identify a unique partition within the two new partitions and the set of new partitions for the obtained second key; inserting the obtained second key into the identified partition; replacing the source partition with the two new partitions; and replacing the existing set of partitions with the new set of partitions.