<p>MySQL cannot use columns of unsupported data types as partitioning keys and aborts table creation or alteration with error 1659.</p>
<p>MySQL Error 1659: ER_FIELD_TYPE_NOT_ALLOWED_AS_PARTITION_FIELD appears when the chosen partition key column uses an unsupported data type like TEXT, BLOB, JSON or GEOMETRY. Switch the column to an allowed type such as INT, BIGINT, DATE or VARCHAR, or pick another key to resolve the issue.</p>
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MySQL throws ER_FIELD_TYPE_NOT_ALLOWED_AS_PARTITION_FIELD when a CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statement tries to partition by a column whose data type is not supported for the selected partitioning strategy. The server cancels the DDL, leaving the table unchanged.
The partitioning engine only accepts deterministic, indexable types such as integer, fixed length string, date and time types. Using complex types would break partition pruning and hash calculations, so MySQL rejects the request with error 1659.
The error is triggered whenever the partition key column is defined as TEXT, BLOB, JSON, GEOMETRY, BIT, ENUM, SET or any other type not present in the allowed list for RANGE, LIST, HASH or KEY partitioning. It may also occur if you wrap an allowed column in a non deterministic expression.
Schema migration tools, object relational mappers and dump restores that generate generic DDL often produce invalid partitioning definitions and surface error 1659 during execution.
Identify the partition key column then confirm its data type with SHOW CREATE TABLE. Change the column to an allowed type or select a different column. Finally recreate the partition definition or alter the table to use the corrected key.
Where column changes are impossible, use SUBPARTITION by HASH(id) while leaving the table unpartitioned at the top level, or disable partitioning entirely.
If a large audit table attempts RANGE partitioning on a JSON column, convert the JSON timestamp to DATETIME and partition on that new column. For hash sharding on UUID strings, store the UUID as BINARY(16) or BIGINT hash, then partition by the numeric representation.
During restore, add the --skip-partitions option to mysqldump output, load the table, transform the data type, then apply a separate ALTER TABLE to create the partitions after the data is in place.
Plan partitioning when designing schemas, not after data growth. Choose simple numeric or date columns as primary keys so they can double as partition keys. Verify data types against MySQL documentation before applying migrations.
Include partition specific tests in CI pipelines. Galaxy's AI copilot can statically analyze your CREATE TABLE statements and warn when partition keys use unsupported data types, stopping the error before it hits production.
Error 1564 partition constant not allowed may appear when the partition range value is invalid. Error 1503 duplicate partition name arises when creating partitions with repeated labels. Solving these issues usually involves correcting the partition definition syntax.
Variable length large object types cannot be used as partition keys because they are not supported by the partitioning engine.
Complex document and spatial types are not deterministic for partition hashing, so MySQL blocks them.
Although stored internally as integers, MySQL still flags ENUM or SET when they are declared as partition fields.
Applying functions like LOWER(name) or DATE(created_at) to an allowed column makes the key non deterministic, triggering the error.
Appears when RANGE or LIST partition definitions omit VALUES LESS THAN or VALUES IN clauses.
Raised when two partitions share the same name within a single table definition.
Occurs when the number of partition columns does not match the number of column list expressions.
No. Indexing does not change MySQL's partitioning restrictions. Convert the column to an allowed type or use a surrogate key.
INT, BIGINT, SMALLINT, DATE, DATETIME, CHAR, VARCHAR with binary collation and DECIMAL work with all partitioning methods.
Yes. Both versions share the same allowed type list. Upgrading will not remove the restriction.
Galaxy's AI copilot highlights unsupported partition columns while you type, and its version control shows schema diffs so you can catch the issue before deployment.
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