Thread: Partitioning a table

What is meant by partitioning a table? Can someone brief me the ways for converting a non-partitioned table into partitioned one?

Decompose a table or index into smaller, more manageable pieces, called partitions. Each partition of a table or index must have the same logical attributes, such as column names, datatypes, and constraints, but each partition can have separate physical attributes such as pctfree, pctused, and tablespaces.

e.g List partition:-

CREATE TABLE sales_by_region (
deptno NUMBER(10),
deptname VARCHAR2(20),
quarterly_sales NUMBER(10,2),
state VARCHAR2(2))
PARTITION BY LIST (state) (
PARTITION q1_north VALUES ('UP', 'PU')
TABLESPACE north,
PARTITION q1_south VALUES ('AP', 'KE', 'MH')
TABLESPACE south,
PARTITION q1_east VALUES ('WB', 'BH', 'OR')
TABLESPACE north);