Partition Field Leftmost-Prefix Ordering
Parent: Online Archive partition-field selection · Published reference · snapshot 2026-10-30
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Source-anchored research for Partition Field Leftmost-Prefix Ordering. Run status: COMPLETED.
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Definitions
- Compound-index leftmost prefixes are a useful analogy for ordered archive partitions: both emphasize leading fields. Percona demonstrates the index case and Karlsson explicitly draws the archive analogy; this does not establish identical optimizer behavior. (medium confidence) [source]
How it works
- Choose partition order by archive query frequency, placing the most frequently filtered field first. The archival date field starts first by default but may move later when another field dominates queries; date-first is not an unconditional requirement. (high confidence) [source]
- MongoDB recommends explain to inspect which data partitions satisfy a query. Use representative filters when checking a proposed field order, particularly queries that omit the leading or an intermediate field. (low confidence) [source]
How-to and procedures
- Use explain on representative archive queries to inspect partition use before relying on the layout. The configuration guide recommends this diagnostic; the independent archiving evaluation also recommends explain for archive-query optimization. (medium confidence) [source]
Problems, failure modes and limitations
- In MongoDB's /title/plot/released example, queries on plot alone, released alone, or plot plus released cannot use the configured partitions without title. Merely filtering on some partition field is therefore insufficient to guarantee efficient partition targeting. (low confidence) [source]
Comparisons and alternatives
- The date field occupies the first partition position by default, but another frequently queried field may precede it. Date-first is therefore a default rather than an unconditional ordering requirement. (high confidence) [source]
Facts and statements
- Online Archive organizes partitions hierarchically in configured field order: the first field partitions data first, and subsequent fields subdivide it. Filtering on a complete leading prefix aligns queries with that hierarchy. (high confidence) [source]
- For /title/plot/released, MongoDB documents partition support for title, title plus plot, and all three. A title-plus-released query can still use partitions, but omitting plot makes use of released less efficient; a gap does not imply that every later field becomes wholly unusable. (high confidence) [source]
- Choose the leading partition field from the filters most frequently used against archived data. MongoDB recommends ordering fields by query frequency; Tidewave independently gives the same workload-oriented guidance. (high confidence) [source]
- Terraform represents the physical partition sequence with partition_fields.order, starting at zero; its documentation identifies the date field as the default first item. (low confidence) [source]
- A July 2026 Nextry engineering-story summary on Velopers reports dataId then time as its archive partition order to match dataId-based retrieval. This is a workload-specific example of placing a non-date field before the archival date, not a comparative benchmark proving the best order for other workloads. (low confidence) [source]
Children
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