In this post, I am sharing a full demonstration of the concept of Partitioned view in SQL Server.

Using Partitioned view, you can implement Table Partitioning in the Non-Enterprise Edition of SQL Server because Table Partition is the feature of SQL Server Enterprise Edition.

Many small level companies are searching for this kind of solution, and the concept of Partitioned view is also giving a good performance.

We can also say that this is a manual table partitioning where you must create separate physical tables basis on your require partition ranges and require to apply proper CHECK constraint for validating data ranges.

After this, using one view, you can access all table and accordingly query execution plan also access only require table which reduces the unnecessary load on all or whole table.

Please check the below demonstration and try it your self.

Create a SEQUENCE object:

CREATE SEQUENCE dbo.seq_ProductHistory
    START WITH 1  
    INCREMENT BY 1 ;  
GO

Create four physical tables:

CREATE TABLE dbo.tbl_ProductHistory_Q1
(
	ProductID INT
	,ProductName VARCHAR(20)
	,SoldDate DATE
	,ProductSoldQuarter TINYINT CHECK (ProductSoldQuarter = 1)
	,CONSTRAINT pk_tbl_ProductHistory_Q1_ProductID_ProductSoldQuarter PRIMARY KEY(ProductID, ProductSoldQuarter)
)
GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.tbl_ProductHistory_Q2
(
	ProductID INT 
	,ProductName VARCHAR(20)
	,SoldDate DATE
	,ProductSoldQuarter TINYINT CHECK (ProductSoldQuarter = 2)
	,CONSTRAINT pk_tbl_ProductHistory_Q2_ProductID_ProductSoldQuarter PRIMARY KEY(ProductID, ProductSoldQuarter)
)
GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.tbl_ProductHistory_Q3
(
	ProductID INT 
	,ProductName VARCHAR(20)
	,SoldDate DATE
	,ProductSoldQuarter TINYINT CHECK (ProductSoldQuarter = 3)
	,CONSTRAINT pk_tbl_ProductHistory_Q3_ProductID_ProductSoldQuarter PRIMARY KEY(ProductID, ProductSoldQuarter)
)
GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.tbl_ProductHistory_Q4
(
	ProductID INT 
	,ProductName VARCHAR(20)
	,SoldDate DATE
	,ProductSoldQuarter TINYINT CHECK (ProductSoldQuarter = 4)
	,CONSTRAINT pk_tbl_ProductHistory_Q4_ProductID_ProductSoldQuarter PRIMARY KEY(ProductID, ProductSoldQuarter)
)
GO

Create a Partitioned View:

CREATE VIEW dbo.vw_ProductHistory
WITH SCHEMABINDING
AS
SELECT ProductID, ProductName, SoldDate, ProductSoldQuarter FROM dbo.tbl_ProductHistory_Q1
UNION ALL
SELECT ProductID, ProductName, SoldDate, ProductSoldQuarter FROM dbo.tbl_ProductHistory_Q2
UNION ALL
SELECT ProductID, ProductName, SoldDate, ProductSoldQuarter FROM dbo.tbl_ProductHistory_Q3
UNION ALL
SELECT ProductID, ProductName, SoldDate, ProductSoldQuarter FROM dbo.tbl_ProductHistory_Q4
GO

Use view and Insert data into four tables:

INSERT INTO dbo.vw_ProductHistory 
VALUES (NEXT VALUE FOR dbo.seq_ProductHistory, 'Computer', '2017-01-08', 1)
GO

INSERT INTO dbo.vw_ProductHistory 
VALUES (NEXT VALUE FOR dbo.seq_ProductHistory, 'Laptop', '2017-04-14', 2)
GO

INSERT INTO dbo.vw_ProductHistory 
VALUES (NEXT VALUE FOR dbo.seq_ProductHistory, 'Pendrive', '2017-08-16', 3)
GO

INSERT INTO dbo.vw_ProductHistory 
VALUES (NEXT VALUE FOR dbo.seq_ProductHistory, 'Mobile', '2017-12-26', 4)
GO

SELECT all records from all four tables via view:
Check the execution plan, where you can see four different access on physical tables.

SELECT *FROM dbo.vw_ProductHistory

Result:

ProductID   ProductName          SoldDate   ProductSoldQuarter
----------- -------------------- ---------- ------------------
1           Computer             2017-01-08 1
2           Laptop               2017-04-14 2
3           Pendrive             2017-08-16 3
4           Mobile               2017-12-26 4

Check the execution plan: It is accessing all four physical tables

SELECT few records:
Check the execution plan, where you can find only access of Quarter-4 table because we are selecting data only for it.

SELECT *FROM dbo.vw_ProductHistory 
WHERE ProductSoldQuarter = 4

Result:

ProductID   ProductName          SoldDate   ProductSoldQuarter
----------- -------------------- ---------- ------------------
4           Mobile               2017-12-26 4

Check the execution plan: It is accessing only Quarter-4 table.

If you are SQL DBA and if I am taking your interview, definitely I will ask this question to you.
If you don’t know about Filtered Index and how to create a Table Partition in SQL Server, please visit below articles:

SQL Server: Filtered Indexes – Improved the query performance

SQL Server 2016: Introduce New TRUNCATE by Partitions Number

Filtered Index:

• You can store a portion of your dataset in Filtered Index. For example, Created a filtered index on Gender column for only ‘Male’, then it stores only ‘Male’ detailed index data.
• Filtered index only applies to a subset of the base table which is not allowing a fast switching.
• You can reduce the CPU I/O by reading a particular value of a Filtered Index.
• The Filtered index stores only keys and reference of data.
• Once you create a Filtered Index on the PartitionScheme, you have to create same Filtered Index for every new table partitions which create a problem because a combination of Filtered indexes may contain the different value.
• If you already apply table partition, you should not apply filtered indexes on those partitions.

Table Partition:

• The Table Partitioning breaks your main table into small groups of tables based on defined partitioning key.
  The data physically divided for better management and fast retrieval.
• For example, you have a 20GB of a table, and it contains total 5 years of data so you can partition your table base on years which will create five table partitions with each size of 4GB.
• To implement Table partitioning, you need to create .ndf files for each partition, partition function, partition scheme.
• It stores all columns of your table in partitions; it is not just storing the key of data like Filtered Index.
  You can define indexes on each table partitions.
• The maintenance of Table Partitions is costly and time taking.